Tournament of Shadows
by Shadow's Mirror
Summary: There's a new duelist in town and he threatens to take over the world... and the Shadow Realm. The Millennium Items won't be enough to stop him. Luckily, help is at hand. ongoing
1. Prologue: Distractions

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Prologue: Distractions**  
By Shadow's Mirror

Seto Kaiba knew he was being watched.

He had heard the soft padding of footsteps coming down the hall several minutes ago and the hair on the back of his neck was prickling in the way that it did whenever this happened. Since this was something that happened almost every night, he was well used to the sensation. He finished typing in his command and sighed inaudibly, knowing what was coming. Still, he said it anyway.

"You should be in bed."

Mokuba shuffled into the room from the doorway, his usual energy absent at such a late hour. He leaned against the arm of the leather chair and looked up at his brother. "I couldn't sleep."

A wry smile twisted Seto's lips. "It's very easy, Mokuba. You go to bed, close your eyes, think pleasant thoughts and it just happens."

Mokuba smiled slightly. "Pleasant thoughts? What do you think about, big brother?"

"Defeating Yami Yugi." The answer came without hesitation. Seto was perfectly serious but his tone was matter-of-fact, even touched with amusement. The anger that had once driven him in that particular goal had been absent for some time.

Mokuba chuckled and leaned against the chair a little more. His head rested lightly against his brother's arm. The young boy could feel the muscles underneath the thin cotton shirt moving in time with the restless tapping of Seto's hand as he impatiently waited for the computer to do something. "What are you doing, Seto?"

"I'm analyzing the duelists in the tournament that's being held in Tokyo." The answer was simple enough, and anyone else would have taken it at face value, but Mokuba heard the slight tenseness in his brother's voice and knew there was more to it than that.

"Why?"

For a long moment, Seto was silent. When he finally replied, his voice was so soft it was almost as though he'd forgotten that Mokuba was in the room, as though he was answering the question he'd been asking himself countless times since he'd started the analysis. "Because something isn't right."

"What?" Mildly interested now, Mokuba shifted so he could get a better look at the screen. A list of duelists' names and their rankings was visible but he couldn't see anything unusual about it. He blinked and looked more closely, reading the names and trying to place them. With his big brother so prominent in the world of Duel Monster tournaments, Mokuba knew every major duelist in the world. Or so he thought. He frowned slightly. "Who's Evien Sanders?" In the list of top-class duelists, it was the only name he didn't recognise.

"I don't know," Seto admitted quietly. He frowned at the screen, disturbed more than he cared to admit by the fact. "I've been coming across the name a fair bit lately. It seems he's good. He's also new to the game. This is only his third tournament. His game's improving. Rapidly."

Too rapidly. The thought pounded in Seto's mind, but he left it unspoken. He wasn't even sure why he thought it. After all, it wasn't all that unusual for duelists to improve their game in-between tournaments. Or even during tournaments, for that matter. Still… there was something about Evien Sanders that was ringing alarm bells with him. He just couldn't place the reason for his uneasiness. It was almost as though he recognised Sanders from another time… and considered him dangerous.

The thought caught Seto by surprise and he immediately forced himself to focus on something else. There was no way he would even consider thinking along those lines! Other times… He'd had more than enough of that nonsense during the Battle City debacle!

Mokuba looked up in surprise as Seto abruptly stood. "Big brother?"

Seto's eyes were shadowed, inscrutable, as he turned and scowled down at the boy. "Bedtime, Mokuba. No excuses."

"Are you going to bed too? You should. It's late." There was no censure in the boy's voice, but then again there never was. Not towards him at least. Seto's scowl eased into a slight smile.

"I might as well. You'll only keep coming to check on me otherwise, and you have school tomorrow."

"So do you." Mokuba allowed himself to be herded towards the door, but he paused before leaving. "Your computer's still on."

Mokuba's knowing gaze met Seto's and the older boy winced. Sometimes he wished that his little brother didn't know him quite so well. It was true, he had been intending to return to the office for a little while longer after tucking Mokuba in.

After two weeks of surprisingly futile searching, he had finally managed to track down a photo of Evien Sanders. It was taking its sweet time to download though. If he turned off the computer now, he'd lose it.

Seto sighed at the look in his brother's eyes. "Computer. Terminate download and shut down." He ignored the faint voice in the back of his mind warning against the action, preferring to focus on the smile on Mokuba's face. To him, that smile was worth any amount of inconvenience.

As his computer silently obeyed the command, Seto turned off the light and followed his brother down the hall to tuck him back into bed. He didn't think of the photo again until he was lying in his own bed, about to drift off to sleep. "I'll download it in the morning," he promised himself.

Humouring your paranoia might seem like a reasonable thing to do at 3am in the morning, but in the cold light of day Seto Kaiba just shook off his thoughts as being completely irrational. Although that voice in his mind was practically screaming for him to find the photo again and download it, he ignored it and went on with his daily routine.

"I don't believe it… it was right there!" Mokuba looked up in surprise at his big brother's growl. His eyes widened in shock when it was followed by the loud thump of Seto's fist striking the desk. He could see Seto's eyes, twin blue fires blazing with fury, and he felt an uneasy chill run up his spine.

"W…what's wrong, big brother?" He was never afraid of his brother, but even so, he hesitated over interrupting him when he was so enraged.

Seto's eyes snapped to Mokuba, an unwitting target for his temper. He was about to snarl at him when the concern on the boy's face broke through his rage, as nothing else could have. Seto sighed heavily, suddenly calm again. "It's nothing, Mokuba. I just wanted to download a photo that I found a few weeks ago, but now it's been deleted and I can't find it anywhere else."

He looked back at the computer. With his anger back under control, he was surprised to realise that he was actually shaking. He didn't understand why he was so affected by the discovery of the photo's deletion. That alone made him uneasy. Almost as uneasy as the fact that he'd almost yelled at his brother. "I'm sorry if I worried you, Mokuba," he added quietly.

"I always worry about you, Seto. Just like you worry about me. We're brothers, we're supposed to worry about each other." Seto felt a warm weight leaning against his arm. He smiled slightly and looked down into his brother's anxious brown eyes.

"I know." He gently ruffled the boy's hair. Mokuba grinned and ducked away.

"Seto!" He laughed and then leaned against his brother again. His eyes went to the computer screen and he frowned slightly at the list there. "Is that the list for the Domino City Tournament that was announced this morning?"

"Yes." Seto leaned back in his chair and watched his younger brother in amusement as Mokuba studied the list with surprising intent. If only he'd turn that focus onto his schoolwork once in a while… Seto's musings were cut short by Mokuba's sudden excited cry. "Mokuba?"

"Look Seto! Yugi, Ryou, Malik and Isis are on the list! And Joey…" Mokuba added with a sideways glance at his brother.

Seto scowled at the second-last name on the list. "Yes. I know. I'd complain if I didn't know for a fact that it's right. It was the first thing I checked. That blasted mutt somehow managed to get in…" He was still grumbling about it when he realised that Mokuba had tensed up. He knew what the boy had spotted. He'd had the same reaction when he'd seen it.

"Evien Sanders. He's on the list too? But I thought this tournament was just for the highest ranking duelists in Japan?"

"Yes. It is. Apparently his last duel upped his ranking just enough for him to qualify."

Something about his comment bothered him, although he couldn't work out what. He impatiently shook off his uneasiness and returned his attention to his brother. Although he still had a lot of work to do, he suddenly felt the need for a break. Mokuba, as always, was the perfect distraction.

"Have you finished your homework yet?" Mokuba's grimace was all the answer he needed. "Need some help with it?" His brother's enthusiastic reaction drew a slight smile out of him.

As Seto followed Mokuba across the room, he forced all thoughts of the unknown duelist out of his mind. He wished now that he'd followed his instincts and downloaded the photo when he'd had the chance, but there was no sense in allowing regrets to overcome common sense. After all, it wasn't as though he really needed the photo. He'd know what Sanders looked like soon enough.

In only a few short weeks he'd be meeting the young man face to face, during the Domino City Tournament.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 1: Preparations

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: *Text* indicates thoughts or a mental conversation between a light and a yami.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: In this chapter you meet five original characters. Evien, Nyc (pronounced Neek), Avril, Rina and Callie. Yes, I know that's a lot, but I have a reason for including each and every one of them, I promise ^_^ There is also a reason why I've only given a physical description of Evien... I've lost the file where I had my notes about the girls so I'll describe them in the next chapter ;-_- 

****

Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 1: Preparations  
By Shadow's Mirror

It was shortly before dawn on the day of the start of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament. At such an early hour, most of the inhabitants of Domino were sleeping soundly, but there were several scattered around the city who were wide awake and eagerly anticipating the week ahead. 

The tournament was to run for seven days, and it promised to be a great deal of fun, not only for those duelists good enough to be participating, but for the tens of thousands of Duel Monsters fans around the world who would be watching the action from the comfort of their own homes via Kaiba Corp's satellite system. 

The rules had already been announced. Only the standard dueling rules would apply, and each player would begin each duel with a life point tally of 8,000. Players also had to use the same deck throughout the entire tournament, except that they were allowed to switch in any cards that they won along the way. But what made the tournament different from any other was the way in which it would progress. 

Domino City had hosted a major dueling tournament before, Kaiba Corp's Battle City Tournament, and the organisers of this new event had taken a few leaves out of Seto Kaiba's book. The dueling arena was going to be all of Domino, rare cards would be received as prizes, and the participating duelists would be using an upgraded version of the same portable Duel Disk system that had been used in Battle City. Also, at the end of the tournament, the final eight duelists would battle each other to determine the ultimate winner. But there were a few differences too. 

In the Battle City tournament, there had been hundreds of duelists participating and they had needed to duel each other. The winner of each duel had received their opponent's rarest card, but also a special locator card that, when six were gathered, guided the fortunate few who managed to get that far to the location of the Battle City finals. 

In the Treasure Quest Tournament, only the top sixteen duelists in Japan were competing and, although they would eventually duel each other, for most of the competition they would be dueling against special judges. There were thirty-two such judges in all and they were located in fixed points around the city. At the start of the competition, each duelist would be given a clue to the location of one of the judges. After that, they had to follow the clue, find the judge, duel and win. If the duelist won, they would receive a rare card as a prize, but they would also receive another clue. If they lost, they would have to duel again, until they won. Only by winning could they proceed to the next duel. Each duelist had to win five duels before they received the final clue, which would lead them to the location of the finals. They had four days to get there, but that didn't mean that everyone who made it on time would go through to the last stage of the competition. Only the first eight to arrive at the final location would be allowed to proceed. 

So, to go through to the finals, a duelist would not only need to be able to win five duels as quickly as possible, but would also need to be able to solve the clues to get from one duel location to the next! That promised to be a challenge. Although some of the participating duelists were excited at the thought of testing themselves aside from their dueling instincts, a few of the others weren't too sure about that part of it. One or two had even grumbled about it being nothing more than a waste of time. Still, rules were rules, so they had no choice but to go along with it!

There was one other rule, to keep things fair. For the first day of the tournament, and during the finals, the starting time was eleven o'clock. For the second, third and fourth days of the tournament, the duelists were only allowed to begin dueling, or following their clue, at nine o'clock each morning. They had to finish at five o'clock each afternoon, when they were to return to wherever they were staying for the duration of the tournament. The only exception was if they were in the middle of a duel at the time. In that case, they were permitted to finish the duel before going home for the night. 

So, as the sun began to rise over Domino City on the first day, sixteen duelists waited eagerly, and in most cases impatiently, for eleven o'clock to come.

* * *

Yugi bounced out of bed before the alarm even stopped ringing. As he started getting ready for the big day ahead, he heard a soft chuckle coming from behind him. 

"Yugi, there is no rush. We have several hours yet until the contest starts." 

"I know, but I want to make sure that I wear the right thing, so it could take me a while to decide!" The boy turned to smile at his darker-half as Yami lounged on the bed, still in his pajamas. As always, the sight sent a shiver of delight up Yugi's spine. 

They really were Yami's pajamas. 

After a few weeks of trying to persuade his light that he didn't need his own pajamas for when he went to sleep in his physical form, Yami had finally given in and gone shopping with Yugi. The sleek dark blue satin pajamas had been the first item they'd bought, after Yugi had caught Yami stroking the fabric in fascination. The Kuriboh plushie that currently had pride of place nestled between the bed's two pillows had been the second item, for a similar reason. 

Yami shook his head as he noticed his light's sudden distraction. "Yugi. Yugi!" 

"Huh? Oh… What is it Yami?" The boy was back to his usual cheerful attentiveness, although there was now a faint tinge of colour darkening his cheeks. Yami sighed and gave his light a stern look. Or as stern as he could make it when he was really rather worried. 

Yugi hadn't been the same for the past few weeks. He had never been so easily distracted before, but the spirit was unable to find any reason for the change. Whenever he asked, Yugi just found a way to avoid answering. That also was not at all like his light.

"I hope you are not so distracted once we begin dueling, Yugi. This will take both of us. Especially once we reach the finals and have to face Kaiba." He pulled a face at the thought. 

Yugi chuckled and nodded. "Don't worry, Yami. Kaiba won't beat us. I won't let you down." 

Yami smiled back, relieved. "You never could, Yugi." He stretched and sighed. "I suppose I had better get up also…" 

Yugi grabbed his clothes. "Oh no… you are not getting the bathroom first! Not after last time! It took me hours to clean up the mess!" 

As his light hurried into the bathroom, Yami frowned and called after him. "That was not my fault! How was I to know that you were only supposed to twist the lid of the powder so the holes were uncovered rather than take the top off entirely? As for the toothpaste, I wasn't expecting it to come out with such… force." 

* * *

Seto Kaiba had been awake before dawn, getting in a few hours work on his computer before the tournament began. He planned to do that every morning during the competition, as well as every evening. Most people would have found it tough trying to run a company and participate in a week-long dueling competition at the same time, but Kaiba was confident that he had it all under control. He had well-trained people exactly where he needed them to be in case anything went wrong, and he was certain that they would contact him if, and only if, his presence was urgently required. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to be completely out of touch. As well as his daily checks, he expected to have at least a day or two free while he waited for the other finalists to arrive at the last location. 

He knew he'd be the first to arrive. After all, with his deck containing three Blue Eyes White Dragons, there was no way he could be defeated! The judges would be scrambling in the dirt in no time at all. As for the clues… Kaiba silently scoffed at the idea of any clue possibly confusing his superior intellect. Besides, he and his little brother had lived in Domino for years and they'd completely mapped every square inch of it for the Battle City tournament. He knew where every landmark and otherwise notable building was! He even owned a few of them.

At nine o'clock, Mokuba bounced into the office with breakfast and Kaiba took a break. As they ate, Mokuba chattered excitedly about the tournament, with Kaiba managing to get a few words in whenever his brother paused to eat. 

Although outwardly Kaiba appeared to be completely calm, inwardly he was almost as excited as Mokuba. To him, the contest represented another chance to reclaim his title as the world's top duelist from Yugi. This time… this time he would defeat Yugi and that irritating alter-ego of his and then everyone would know that he, Seto Kaiba, was the best duelist in the world!

* * *

Joey was leading a crawling and collared Kaiba on a leash through the school cafeteria when a jangling sound woke him from his extremely pleasant dream. He groped for the ringing phone as he blearily opened his eyes. 

"Mwha?" The sweet sound of his little sister's voice brought Joey awake instantly. "Oh, hi Sis! Yeah, I'm awake. What's up?" A broad grin appeared on his face as his sister wished him luck for the contest. "Thanks Serenity! That's just what I needed to hear! Knowing you're cheering me on will really help! Yeah, I'm looking forward to the chance to kick Kaiba's..." He suddenly noticed the time. "Uh, I have to get ready Sis. I'll talk to you tonight. 'Kay. Love you too. Bye!" 

As soon as he put the phone down, Joey scrambled to his feet. "Aw man… I can't believe I slept through my alarm! I'd better get a move on or I'm gonna be late!" He paused as the last image from his dream flashed through his mind. "It was worth it though." Another image from an earlier part of his dream came to him and his grin turned into a grimace. "Mostly. I probably shouldn't eat pizza right before bed. Speaking of… time for breakfast!" 

With a cold slice of pizza in one hand, Joey was soon searching under his bed for his other shoe. 

* * *

Bakura quietly got up, careful not to wake his light as he got dressed. He and Ryou had stayed up later than they should have. It was his fault. He'd been too excited about the contest to sleep and so he'd kept Ryou up most of the night working on new strategies to use against the Pharaoh and Kaiba. It had been nearly two o'clock before he'd turned to speak to Ryou and found him stretched out on the bed, sound asleep. Bakura figured the least he could do was let his light sleep in for a bit. When he got to the kitchen though, he was tempted to wake Ryou up. 

*I've robbed tombs, I've had my soul sealed in an artifact, I know most of the fiends and ghouls in the Shadow Realm personally, I came out of Yami's soulroom with my sanity… Shadows, I've even survived being a chibi! How hard can it be to make a few pancakes?* he thought to himself.

Ten minutes later, Bakura crunched his cereal and made a mental note to keep Ryou out of the kitchen until he'd had a chance to search through the Book of Secret Arts for a spell to remove extra-sticky pancake mix from the ceiling. 

Ten minutes after that, Ryou's soul was woken by a startled yell. He sat up and blinked, confused for a moment before he realised that he was in his yami's soulroom. Remembering the night before, Ryou figured that he must have fallen asleep. Since Bakura wasn't there, it was probably morning. Which meant that his yami was currently in control of his body. 

As Ryou made a mental note to avoid the kitchen until his yami had a chance to clean up whatever mess he'd made that he didn't want his light to see, Ryou tried to work out what had woken him up. There had been a loud noise. Like a… "Oh dear. A yell isn't usually a good thing to wake up to…" Ryou muttered to himself as he opened his mind to let his yami know that he was awake. 

Bakura had been very careful not to do anything to disturb his exhausted light's sleep. He hadn't even ranted in his mind when he'd had his little pancake incident. He'd just been congratulating himself on his thoughtfulness when he'd opened the bathroom cabinet and found himself face to face with one of the few things in the world, or the Shadow Realm for that matter, capable of giving him nightmares. All thoughts of not waking his light flew from his mind at the sight.

"Ryou! I thought you said you'd put that cursed rubber duck of yours somewhere else!" 

* * *

Isis raised her cup of tea to her lips and sipped it, enjoying the sweet herbal taste of chamomile mixed with the tart tang of orange as she ignored the sounds of chaos coming from the rest of the apartment. When the kitchen door suddenly opened, she tensed for a moment before relaxing again. "Odion." 

Odion eyed his adopted sister, looking as nervous as he ever looked. "Ah… Isis…"

"The answer is no. You were the one who gave them breakfast and you were the one who decided that they would need their strength today, so gave them extra-large helpings of it. Now, you can deal with the consequences." 

Odion turned several shades paler. Isis was fairly certain that she heard him mutter 'Oh Ra…'. Her lips curled up into a smug smile as she sipped her tea again. 

"It serves you right. You know perfectly well what happens when you give either Malik or Marik too much sugary cereal. Giving it to both of them at the same time… Even without the Millennium Necklace, I could have told you that would be trouble."

* * *

Mai groaned softly. "Oh… Joey…" The ringing of her alarm made her stir. She sleepily reached out and turned the irritating sound off. As she blinked herself out of her extremely nice dream, she suddenly realised that she was hugging one of her pillows. She also heard the sound of someone laughing. Blushing, Mai sat up. "Now I remember why I don't like to share hotel rooms…" She muttered as she looked over to the girl leaning in the doorway. Mai tried to scowl, but since her cheeks were still burning, her expression wasn't exactly intimidating. "It's not funny!" 

Nyc managed to stop laughing, but she was still grinning. "Yes it is!" 

She strode across the room and dropped down onto the bed beside Mai, eyeing the older girl with a mix of fondness and amusement. There was also a gleam of devilry in her eyes that made Mai edge away rather nervously. Nyc's grin widened. "I've known you for a couple of years now, Mai, and this is the first time I've seen you so worked up over a competition. At first I thought there was something about the prizes that attracted you, but now I understand." 

"Understand? Understand what?" Mai blinked at Nyc in confusion.

"It's not the prizes you're attracted to. It's one of the other participants." Nyc laughed as Mai gasped and instantly started to deny it, even as her blush confirmed it. "Joey… hmm… the only Joey in the competition is Joey Wheeler. I hear he's pretty good. As a duelist, I mean. Although you could probably tell me how good he is in… other areas." Nyc quickly ducked the pillow Mai threw at her.

"It's not like that! He… I… We're just friends! That's all!" Mai glared at Nyc, questioning her decision for what seemed like the hundredth time for ever agreeing to share a suite with the girl. She'd forgotten how annoying Nyc could be. She was just so… observant! Nothing got past her! Mai wondered how she'd ever thought that she could keep her crush on Joey a secret with Nyc around… Then an arm slipped around her shoulders. Mai looked up in surprise as she was hugged. 

Nyc smiled gently, all signs of her earlier teasing gone. "So… he's one of the ones who got past your defenses huh? I guess I owe him some thanks."

Mai frowned at her, but didn't pull away. "What are you talking about? Thanks for what?" 

"We've known each other for… what? Four years? But it's only been in the past two that you've let us be real friends. I noticed the change in you that first tournament we were both in after you came back from Duelist Kingdom."

Mai looked away, remembering what had happened there. She was surprised, and rather ashamed, to realise that Nyc was right. Before Yugi, Joey, Téa and their friends had shown her what true friendship was all about, she had always pushed people away. Including Nyc. "I'm surprised that you kept trying, considering how many times I told you to get lost." 

Nyc laughed. "I don't give up that easily! Surely you know that about me by now!" 

It was Mai's turn to laugh. "I'll say! I found that out the hard way, more than once!" She smiled at her younger friend, remembering all the times they had dueled against each other. "I'm just glad that you and I don't compete in all the same duels, otherwise I probably wouldn't have the ranking to get in to today's contest!" 

"Plenty of contests for everyone!" Nyc grinned. Her smile faded slightly. "I'm still not convinced that the ranking system was the fairest way to determine entry into this tournament though. I mean… sure I've won enough minor tournaments to qualify for it, but I'm nowhere near Yugi and Kaiba's league."

Mai put her arm around her friend, as always surprised at how easy it was to do such a thing. Two years earlier, she wouldn't have been able to force herself to do it. Now… she actually wanted to. "Hon, stop selling yourself short. You and I both know that's not true. I've seen the way you battle, remember. You can't fool me. I know you go easy on most of your opponents. Truth is, sometimes I've wondered why you stay on the minor tournament circuit. I mean, it must be boring for you to face duelists that aren't even half as good as you. There's no challenge in it! You should be dueling in the bigger tournaments, like I do! Not only do you get better opponents, but you also get better prizes." Mai winked and grinned as Nyc burst out laughing. 

"Trust you to say that!" Nyc shook her head, her smile fading as she considered how to reply. "To me, every duel is a challenge no matter who it's with. There's no such thing as an easy victory, there's only lucky victories. Even the most inexperienced duelist can have luck on their side once in a while. I've dueled against kids who had real potential, they just didn't know as much about their cards or how to use them as I did. After I've dueled them, I've seen them thinking over their battle, and where they went wrong, and I know they've learned from their mistakes. It feels like I've helped them become better duelists, you know? I like that idea. I think that's one of the things I love most about this game. Sometimes you learn more from losing than you gain from winning."

Mai smiled. "I know what you mean. I've seen that a few times too, in duelists I've beaten. I've been on the losing side of it too. I know I've learned a lot from my defeats and you're right… I'm a stronger duelist because of it." The two friends shared a smile before Nyc got up.

"Well, that's enough for me. It's way too early in the day for philosophy. Besides, we have more important things to think about." She could barely keep herself from bouncing.

"I knew it! You're looking forward to encountering a bit of a challenge for a change!" Mai grinned. 

Nyc laughed. "A bit, but actually I'm more interested in seeing the others." Her eyes gleamed with excitement and just a hint of something like mischief. "I can't believe we all qualified!" 

Mai looked thoughtful. "Hey that's right. The other girls made it through too. I just realised… I know everyone in this contest. Except for that guy… What was his name again?" 

"Evien. Evien Sanders." Nyc had been crossing the room but now she stood still, her back to Mai as she softly spoke the name of the final duelist in the competition. 

"Yeah! That's him!" Mai looked at her friend curiously. "Didn't you say you know him?" 

"Yeah. We've met. Can't say I liked him though." Nyc turned around. Mai was surprised to see how serious she was. Nyc was usually cheerful and unfailingly optimistic. Now she looked… solemn. "Watch out for him, Mai. He's trouble. He'll try to charm you, but don't let him fool you. The only person he has any feelings for is himself."

Mai regarded Nyc thoughtfully. "You sound like you know that from personal experience."

Nyc nodded. "In a way. He's never tried it with me, because he knows I can see straight through him. But he tried it on a few friends of mine. He hurt them. Badly." 

Her hand rubbed the thin silver bracelet that she always wore around her left wrist. It was an instinctive gesture Mai knew well. Over the years it had become sort of a trademark with Nyc. She did it when she needed confidence, or reassurance, or a really good strategy, or even when she was just deep in thought or remembering something particularly painful. Like she was at that moment.

Mai nodded. "Thanks for the warning. I'll keep my eye on him." Nyc nodded back.

"We'd better start getting ready." 

"Yeah… it's only four hours until we have to be at the tournament opening. Which is being held in the park in front of this very hotel." Mai grinned. 

"You're right, so it would really look bad if we were late. I get the bathroom first!" 

Nyc laughed as Mai tried to beat her there. Once in the bathroom though, with Mai safely on the other side of the door where she couldn't see her expression, Nyc leaned against the door and took a shuddering breath. "Evien. So we're finally going to meet again. This time… I will defeat you." 

* * *

Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor stood in their underwear, locked in a glaring match as they argued.

"I wasn't born yesterday! I know you looked through my deck while I was asleep!" Weevil snarled.

"Oh yeah? Prove it!" Rex crossed his arms and smiled smugly. It wasn't an easy look to pull off since he was only wearing black boxers with the Sword Arm of Dragon printed on them, but somehow he managed it.

Weevil whipped out his deck and pointed to it. "I put a hair in between two of the cards before I went to bed last night. This morning, it was gone! Ha!" He glared at Rex who blinked in shock.

"You did what? Man, and I thought I was paranoid." Rex shook his head.

Weevil glared at Rex some more. "Paranoid! You dinosaur-loving idiot! If I were paranoid, the hair would have still been there this morning! That's not paranoia, that's my not trusting you not to look through my deck! Which is exactly what you did!" He stamped his foot, although the action didn't have quite as much impact as he intended since he was only wearing a pair of neon green boxer shorts with pictures of the Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth all over them. 

Rex eyed his rival thoughtfully. "I don't know whether to be impressed that an idiot like you thought of doing that or insulted that you don't trust me."

Weevil growled… sounding rather like an angry Kuriboh. "Don't trust you! Of course I don't trust you! Why would I? You looked through my deck!" He stamped his foot again. It didn't have any more impact the second time.

"But I hadn't done that before you trapped it," Rex pointed out. "So you had no reason not to trust me. That hurts, Underwood." He made a show of looking saddened but Weevil suddenly looked as though he'd just won a duel against both Joey and Yugi at once.

"Ha! You admitted it! You admitted that you looked through my deck!" 

Rex shrugged. "I never denied it. By the way, here's your card back." He tossed a card at Weevil, who caught it and blinked at him in surprise, and something that looked a little like worry.

"Huh? My card? What are you talking about?" He shifted nervously as Rex looked steadily at him.

"The card you slipped into my deck while I was asleep last night. Did you really think that I wouldn't look through my deck for a final check as soon as I woke up this morning?" 

Weevil spluttered as he turned red. "I… don't know what you're talking about!"

"Uh huh. I suppose you don't know how my strongest monster card got shoved under the bed, either. What, did you think that I'd just count my cards so you switched your Parasite Paracide card for my strongest monster? Which, by the way, you would have had to look through my deck to find." Weevil backed away as Rex moved slowly towards him, suddenly looking panicked. 

"Um… ah… er… I… Oh, is that the time? We're going to be late for the tournament!" Weevil made a run for it and managed to escape into the bathroom. Rex sighed.

"Underwood, you idiot, do you really think that's going to do you any good? It's not like you can avoid me forever. We're sharing this room for the whole contest, remember?" 

* * *

Espa Roba woke up to breakfast in bed, courtesy of his brothers. Touched, he smiled as they joined him. They had their usual happy meal, all chattering away as they ate, although it was clear that part of Espa's mind was already on the duel that was starting that day. 

After breakfast, Espa held his youngest brother on his lap and looked around at his family. "Thanks a lot guys. It really means a lot to me to know that you're going to be cheering for me all the way." 

The younger boys looked at each other and grinned. "Group hug!" they suddenly chorused. Espa yelped as he suddenly found himself tackled by all of his brothers at once. 

"Hey! Get off me!" he laughed as they proceeded to hug him. Knowing there was only one way to stop them, he grinned and started tickling them. Within moments, the group hug became a tickling competition. 

Fifteen happy minutes later, with all of his younger brothers panting in contented exhaustion, Espa looked around the room and blew a feather off his nose. "Okay, own up, who started the pillow fight? Whoever did it is going to have to clear this mess up!" When his brothers all collapsed in laughter, he remembered.

"Oh… yeah… I started it…" 

* * *

Dawn rose over Domino City, greeting three young duelists as they leaned against the balcony of the hotel room they were sharing. They all sighed softly as the city before them was bathed in the first light of day. 

"Beautiful," Avril whispered, her usual seriousness softened by the sight of the sky streaked with the delicate pastels of dawn. 

"I've never seen anything so lovely," Rina agreed. The colours were reflected in the windows of the city's skyscrapers so it looked as though the whole city was painted in the gentle shades.

Callie's attention was on the nearby river, the water glistening with the sun's rays. "Look at how the water sparkles!" She leaned forward and sighed happily. "Life doesn't get much better than this!" 

Rina grinned and nodded. "Yeah. Who would have thought that the three of us would be standing here, with all of Domino City in our sight and a tournament ahead of us? This is going to be great!" 

Avril smiled, but her eyes retained their usual hint of sadness. "It will be, yes. Provided that we succeed in our goal," she added very quietly.

"Don't worry, Avril. We won't forget why we're here." Rina slipped her arm around her friend's shoulders and hugged her. "He's powerful, but we'll defeat him. I know it." 

Callie nodded. She was on Avril's other side, so she slipped her arm around the older girl's waist. "I feel it too. Everything's worked out so far. We just have to trust in each other, and in our cards."

Avril's smile grew as she put her arms around both of her good friends. "Thank you. I know you're right. I just can't help worrying. We've come so far… but we still have a long way to go before we can put our plan in action. There are so many things that we don't know. So many things that could go wrong…"

The girls stood together in silence, gazing out over the city in the growing light as they thought over what they knew was coming. Callie was the first to break the silence. 

"At least we're not in this alone." 

* * *

In a classy hotel room in the heart of Domino City, the blonde haired young man asleep in the large bed stirred. His steel-grey eyes snapped open and his thin lips twisted into a cruel smile. The day had finally arrived. He lay there for several minutes, savouring his plans as they ran through his mind. Satisfied that he had thought of every possible scenario, he turned his attention to the day's tasks and got out of bed to begin his daily exercise and bathroom routines.

Two hours later, at exactly nine o'clock, he sat down to enjoy his breakfast. The omelet was exactly how he liked it and the toast was crisp but not burnt. He had to admit, the hotel's room service was excellent… except… He sighed. Why was it that every single hotel he stayed at always used those fussy little foil-wrapped packages of butter? Didn't anyone in authority know how hard it was to open them without getting butter all over your fingers? 

As he ate, he studied the paper for any sign of his quarry, but he soon threw it down in disgust. "Nothing! I can't believe it! He has to be here somewhere, but I've been in this city for over three months and I know no more now than I did when I arrived! How could he possibly be here without making himself known? I've laid every conceivable trap for him and he hasn't come near even one of them! I was sure that last one would be irresistible to him. He must have known that I was waiting for him… somehow…" 

He brooded about it while he finished his breakfast, and a thoughtful look soon replaced the sulkiness. "Still… even if he was able to sense my traps, he'd never expect me to go against him so openly. He'll be there today. Once I find him, I'll be able to make my preparations for his final defeat." The young man began to laugh, a deep laugh with an edge of malevolence to it that would send a shiver up the spine of anyone who heard it. 

"The countdown to destiny has begun and the fool doesn't even know it! By the end of the tournament, I will have him and his Millennium Item in my grasp and then I will be invincible. The whole world will kneel before me!" Evien Sanders smiled at the thought.

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 2: Introductions

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: Text in **bold** is being emphasised.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: This is part of my special Christmas update, a thank-you gift for everyone who's reading my stories. I've updated all five of my ongoing Yu-Gi-Oh! stories and posted a one-shot Christmas fic too. Merry Christmas everyone!

****

Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 2: Introductions  
By Shadow's Mirror

"C'mon Yug! We're gonna be late!"

Joey's familiar voice made the small group of teenagers standing by the park fountain look up. Most of them smiled. Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor and Seto Kaiba preferred to grimace.

"Coming! You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

The second voice, Yugi's, gained the same reactions from the same people, except that Kaiba's grimace was more of an irritated scowl.

"That's okay, pal. I can wait for those short legs of yours."

"Hey!"

Malik and Marik snickered for a moment before bursting into howls of laughter. Odion sighed softly and glanced at Isis, his look saying, 'Isn't there anything you can do about them? Please?'

Isis smiled back at Odion calmly, as if to say, 'You were the one who fed them sugary cereal this morning. You deal with them.'

As the two boys came into view, Kaiba shook his head slightly. "The circus must be in town. Here come the clowns." He was very careful to merely mutter it to himself, knowing the pain he'd experience if the girl standing beside him overheard his comment.

"Yugi! Joey! Over here!" Téa waved, smiling happily at her friends as they waved back. As soon as they started towards the fountain, she elbowed Kaiba in the side. Hard. "Be nice."

Kaiba blinked at her, shocked. "How in the world could you hear me?"

Téa's eyes narrowed as she turned to her sort-of-boyfriend. "So you **were** muttering something mean about them."

Kaiba swallowed hard, realising that she had just bluffed him into betraying himself. "You're good." He smiled ever so slightly.

Téa smiled sweetly back at him. "Of course. It's about time you realised it."

"Ugh! Why don't you two go get a room or something?" Weevil's interruption earned him a pair of identically irritated glares. He blinked, turned several shades paler and began backing away slowly. "Er… Never mind…"

"Hey." Joey grinned as he and Yugi walked up to the group. He peered at Weevil warily. "What's up with Bug Boy? He looks like someone just brought out a fly zapper."

"Close. He insulted Téa and Kaiba." Tristan grinned.

Joey burst out laughing. "Yeah. That would do it, all right!"

Kaiba's sapphire eyes narrowed into a glare. "What's **that** supposed to mean, Mutt?"

Joey immediately bristled at the insult. "It means…"

"That you and Téa are both pretty scary when you get mad."

The voice that interrupted the argument was low, husky and feminine, with a note of barely suppressed laughter. Joey smirked as he turned to greet the speaker. "Hey Mai!" Kaiba grunted a greeting as the others, with the exception of Weevil and Rex, all smiled and waved.

The blonde woman smiled back easily. "Hey Joey. Everyone." Her eyes flicked over the gathering crowd milling around the park. "Sure are a lot of people here today." She turned her attention to the immediate group and frowned slightly. "We're missing a few though."

Joey looked around and nodded. "Yeah. Shouldn't there be sixteen of us? There's only…" He tried to do a quick head count, but Espa Roba's brothers were everywhere and he kept counting them thinking they were Espa. All the green hair was confusing. "Um…"

Kaiba sighed. "Eleven. Honestly Wheeler, considering how old you are, I would have thought you'd have learned to count by now."

Joey glared at Kaiba. Before another argument could break out though, Ryou spoke up quietly. "I didn't recognise the other names in the contest list. Does anyone know who they are?"

Kaiba scowled. "They're the ones who shouldn't be in this tournament."

Mai frowned at him. "That's harsh, Kaiba. Even for you. They got in by their rankings, same as we did." Her comment earned her an icy glare.

"But **we** got here by being the best. All they did was win a few minor tournaments against amateurs!"

Joey looked from Mai to Kaiba and back again, frowning slightly. "Okay, I'm confused." He turned to Mai, ignoring Kaiba's muttered, 'So what else is new?' "What's going on, Mai? I thought this contest was for the top ranking players in Japan, so what's the problem? If these other guys qualified…"

Mai shook her head. "It's not that simple, Joey." She paused for a moment, considering. "No, actually it is, but there's a catch. You see, the rankings are based on a points system and it covers **all** official dueling tournaments and matches in Japan. That includes all the small gameshop matches held each weekend, as well as the larger professional tournaments and events like Battle City. The thing is, Kaiba does have a point. The other entrants in this tournament got here by winning mainly smaller contests. Most of the duelists in those small matches are playing just for fun. There's no way they could go up against someone as experienced as, say, me… and have even a chance of winning."

Joey frowned. "That doesn't sound fair. If they don't stand a chance, this won't be much fun for them."

Mai smiled slightly. "Ah, but that's where Kaiba and I disagree, Joey. The way I see it, the duelists that got here by winning only smaller tournaments have really earned their places the hard way."

"Yeah? How's that, Mai?"

"Rankings are worked out according to the number of points a Duelist earns. The more prestigious the tournament, the more points it's worth to the winners. Major events can offer up to two hundred points. That's the equivalent of a world class Duelist. The larger tournaments offer between fifty and a hundred points, depending on where you place. There are also other tournaments for anywhere from ten to fifty points. But most of the small weekend matches only earn a point or two each, if they earn any at all. A lot of the time, they're just for fun. Winning doesn't count towards an official ranking."

Mai paused and looked around again, although this time it was obvious that she was searching for something, or someone, and not just looking around at the crowd. "Where in the world…? Oh well." Shrugging off her distraction, Mai returned her attention to Joey and the others. By this point, even Rex, Weevil and Kaiba were listening to the conversation. Kaiba was pretending to be disinterested, of course, but he was still listening.

"Now where was I?" Mai thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah. Only the best sixteen duelists in Japan were invited to this tournament. To get here, each of us had to duel our way into the top ranks."

She began to count them off. "Battle City was the biggest tournament this year. Yugi and Malik, as the top two duelists, earned enough points from it to automatically qualify for this contest. The rest of us finalists got a pretty decent boost in our rankings from it too. I don't know about everyone else, but after that, I went on to win a couple of high-stakes duels. Big prize money and more than enough points to earn my place here. I heard that Roba, Underwood and Raptor each won a few larger tournaments, so they qualified that way. One of the remaining five barely scraped in. He won just enough of the mid-sized contests to qualify. Even then, he only made it in because Bandit Keith was caught cheating and disqualified from the tournament."

Ryou's eyes widened in shock. "Oh! I remember that! I saw the announcement on television when it happened."

He remembered it vividly. It had been during the time that Bakura had accidentally turned himself into a chibi. The story had been on the news one night. Bandit Keith hadn't merely been disqualified from the one contest though, he'd been banned from participating in **all** official tournaments.

"Bandit Keith was ranked sixteenth and there were no more official matches before this one, so his place in this contest seemed assured. But when he was caught cheating, the next duelist in line moved up to become sixteenth instead."

Ryou left it at that, although he was tempted to tell them of his strange reaction to the photo of the fortunate duelist. The moment it had appeared on the television screen, he had known that the duelist was big trouble. But since he had no proof, he didn't want his instinctive dislike to prejudice the others.

Kaiba snorted. "So he only got in due to sheer luck. That's what I mean. Lower level duelists have no right competing in top level competitions like this one." His blue eyes glared at Mai, daring her to contradict him.

Naturally, Mai took up the challenge eagerly. "Hold your dragons, Kaiba. That was just **one** of the five. The other four have been steadily working their way up through the ranks over the past year. Between them, they've won pretty much all of the small tournaments and a fair few of the medium ones as well. When you consider how many duels they've fought, and won, to get here… It makes what we've gone through look like a walk in the park!"

She matched him glare for glare. "Each one of those four has earned her right to be here!"

Kaiba's upper lip curled into a derisive sneer. "Oh really? I'll grant you that their dueling records are almost impressive, but the fact remains that they've only been winning against amateurs. They're about to encounter an entirely new level of skill. I doubt if they'll be able to keep up with us."

"Oh, I don't know. I think we'll do just fine. After all, from what I've seen of your dueling skills, Seto Kaiba… some of those 'amateurs' could teach **you** a thing or two."

The lightly mocking voice caught everyone by surprise, except Mai. As the others whirled around to see who was brave, or stupid, enough to insult Kaiba like that, she merely grinned. "Hey Nyc. About time you got here. I was starting to think you'd gotten lost or something."

Kaiba's composure slipped for just a moment, then he glared at the girl who had somehow managed to walk right up behind them without any of them noticing. "As far as I'm concerned, it would be better for you if you **were** to get lost," he growled. "I suppose you think that, just because you won enough duels to qualify for this tournament, you're in the same class as I. Not likely."

Instead of replying, Nyc merely smiled slightly and walked right past Kaiba, towards Mai. She laughed softly. "Sorry if I worried you, Mai. I made the mistake of stopping by the front desk to see if there were any messages for us. There were. The mail was also in. So then I had to take everything back to the room again before I could come out here." She rolled her eyes as Mai chuckled.

Kaiba spluttered. "I was talking to you!"

Nyc looked at him over her shoulder and smiled sweetly. "And I was ignoring you. Get used to it." Her dark brown eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't have time for anyone who thinks they're a better duelist than I am simply because they enter larger tournaments than I do. We play the same game and we face the same challenges in it. Neither of us would be here if we weren't both good at what we do."

Mai smiled. "Well said, Hon!" Nyc grinned back at her.

Kaiba didn't have a comeback for that. He did, however, have the good grace to remain silent instead of pretending he did. As he deliberately turned away, his cheeks held a faint hint of colour.

Everyone else blinked at the girl in astonishment, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. Someone had actually been able to render Kaiba speechless and blushing! That had to be a record.

Joey looked between Mai and the new girl and back again. "Hey Mai, you two know each other?"

Mai smiled. Much to everyone's surprise, she slipped an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "I should, we've been friends for about two years. We're rooming together during this tournament, too." She paused and then took pity on the confused boy. "Joey, everyone, this is Nyc." She pronounced it as 'Neek'. "She's one of the five duelists Kaiba was complaining about." Mai sent a wicked little smile in Kaiba's direction.

"He's not the only one who's not happy about this." Weevil Underwood spoke up. He scowled at Nyc, who grinned back at him as if he were her best friend. "Kaiba's right. You and the other girls shouldn't be in this tournament! You're only going to make fools of yourselves when you're defeated! Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Nyc's attention had been diverted about halfway through Weevil's rant. Everyone else had noticed what Weevil had failed to as well.

While he'd been talking, three other girls had walked up behind him. The smallest one looked like she was almost in tears, while the middle one looked as though she'd like to whap Weevil with a fly swat a few times. The tallest one merely looked at the boy as though he was something slimy and unpleasant that had crawled out from beneath a rock.

The middle one spoke first. "You mean the way I made a fool of **you** when I squished every one of your bugs within one turn, during our last match?" Her green eyes flashed with satisfaction as Weevil made an odd squawking sound and whirled around, his eyes resembling those of his precious insects as they bulged in shock.

"Y…You…!" He quickly caught himself and managed to stop trembling, but he was still considerably paler than he had been. "I… I… That was pure chance! You just happened to make some lucky draws! That was the only reason you won!" A flicker of unease in his eyes suggested that wasn't quite true.

"Indeed? Then it appears that all three of us have been considerably… lucky… in our dealings with you." The tallest one was speaking now, her voice cool and measured. "As I recall, all three of us have defeated you in every duel we have faced you in." Her brown eyes regarded Weevil with calm dismissal, as though he was as insignificant as the insects he treasured

The middle girl smirked as Weevil shifted uncomfortably. "What's the tally now? Three wins to me, four to Avril and two to Callie, isn't it?"

"Three to Callie, Rina. You forgot the rematch he demanded after she won their last official duel."

Ignoring the glares Weevil was giving him, the ones promising that revenge for this would not be swift but slow and extremely painful, Rex Raptor smiled very slightly and nodded to the tallest girl. "Avril. Been a while. Congratulations on making it here. I didn't think you three could do it. Sticking to the smaller matches and all. I've never heard of anyone managing to pull that off before."

The tallest girl, Avril, nodded back, the barest hint of a smile on her lips. "Thank you, Rex. It was rather simple really. The most difficult thing about it was coordinating our entries to ensure that we did not end up dueling each other. That would have been counter-productive to our plan."

Rex smirked at that while Weevil glared at her. Nyc and Mai chuckled. Everyone else blinked in confusion.

"You three worked as a team to make sure you all ended up qualifying for this, huh? That's really cool." Joey frowned as everyone stared at him, stunned. "What?"

Kaiba arched an eyebrow at the blonde boy. "You mean you actually understood her? I'm surprised, Wheeler. I didn't think you understood words of more than one syllable." He smirked as Joey glared at him.

"Of course I understood her!" Joey suddenly looked like a Duelist who had just opened a booster pack and found all five pieces of Exodia. "I've had plenty of practice. She talks a lot like you do." He glanced at Avril and grinned. "No offence."

Avril's lips twitched as though she was barely restraining a smile. "None taken."

Kaiba glared at both of them and then turned away. His attention was immediately caught by the activity over in front of the stage that had been set up on the park's main grassy area.

"In case anyone's interested, it looks like they're about to begin the tournament. I suggest we move to where we're supposed to be." He strode off, not bothering to see if the others had even heard him.

- - -

As the organisers went through their final preparations before officially opening the tournament, the fifteen participants who had arrived took their places in the waiting area off to one side of the stage. They would be called up and introduced to the crowd one by one during the opening ceremony, so the fact that one of the duelists was missing was causing the organisers no end of concern.

While they waited for the opening ceremony to begin, the participating duelists chatted amongst themselves.

Rex and Weevil had taken up position on one side of the enclosure, opting to lean against the side of the stage rather than rest in the available seats. They stood in companionable silence side by side, close enough that their shoulders touched. Occasionally, Weevil would glare in Rina or Avril's direction and Rex would nudge him until he stopped.

Kaiba and Téa were seated up the back of the enclosure, talking quietly. Technically, Téa wasn't supposed to be there, since the area was for participants only, but Kaiba had given the attendant one of his patented Blue Eyes CEO Dragon glares and that rule had been waived. And not just for Téa.

Just in front of the pair of brunettes, a pair of blondes were having an argument about whether or not fish were good for throwing at people or if they should just be used for juggling.

Odion sat beside Malik and Marik, trying to keep himself from listening in to the argument for fear that it would cause him permanent brain damage from trying to understand any of it. Isis sat calmly on his other side, reading a book. Every now and then Odion would glance at her. Each time Isis would quietly say, "No." Odion would then sigh and resume trying to keep his sanity more or less intact.

Yugi and Ryou were sitting together off to the left. They weren't talking. Not to each other at least. To anyone who knew their secret, the distant look in their eyes revealed the truth. Both of them were deep in conversation with their yamis. After a few minutes, there was a flash of light from the puzzle hanging around Yugi's neck. A moment later, another flash came from Ryou's Millennium Ring.

Now in control of their lights' bodies, Yami and Bakura glanced at each other warily and traded a knowing look. They continued to sit in silence, as their lights had but for a different reason. They had no need to talk. Both knew that the other was concerned about the same thing he was.

There was something not quite right about the four female duelists currently chatting to Mai, Joey and Espa in the front seats of the waiting area. It concerned them enough that the two yamis had decided to come out and observe the situation first-hand rather than merely keep watch through their lights' eyes. So, Yami and Bakura endured each other's presence in silence as they covertly studied the four girls.

Nyc was deep in conversation with Mai.

At first glance, they appeared to be complete opposites. Mai was in her early twenties, Nyc appeared to be around sixteen. Mai had long, stylishly wild, blonde hair and violet eyes that always seemed to hold a mix of cynical amusement and daring challenge. Nyc's dark brown hair fell in a neat shoulder-length bob, unlike her fringe which was tousled and slightly spiky, and her dark brown eyes were wide and open with just a hint of mischief. Mai, as always, was dressed stylishly in her trademark purple. For this tournament, she'd gone for her usual short skirt and a sleeveless jacket over a white top. Nyc, by comparison, seemed to fade into the background in her sleeveless brown top and matching just-above-knee-length skirt. Even her black sneakers were nothing like Mai's knee-high purple boots. Their taste in jewelry was also different, Mai opting for a pair of purple hoop earrings while Nyc wore a simple silver bangle around her right wrist.

There was nothing obviously unusual about Nyc. But the two yamis noticed how her eyes kept darting around. She was keeping a very close eye on everything going on around her. They didn't know her well enough to say whether it was simply an indication of a cautious nature, or if there was something in particular that she was keeping watch for.

The other three girls were even more of a mystery.

Callie was the smallest of the three and, even if she hadn't looked like it, the protective attitude of the other two girls towards her suggested that she was also the youngest.

She bore a strong resemblance to a porcelain doll. Her long, pale-blonde hair was caught up in a ponytail that curled into a single large ringlet, except for one long lock that fell down in front of her left ear. Her eyes were framed with long, thick lashes and illustrated the phrase 'wide eyed innocence' to perfection. Her skin was very pale and the colour of fresh cream after a strawberry had been lightly swirled through it. She also seemed to have a permanent hint of colour in her cheeks.

All in all, Callie looked as though she'd be right at home in a Victorian gown with more lace and frills than a debutante's ball, so it was almost a physical shock to see her in fairly modern clothes. She wore a sleeveless blue top with a wide, embroidered band around the neck, black sneakers and dark blue jeans with lighter cuffs and small silver stars sewn on at random. Aside from the stars, her only other ornament was a blue crystal, about the size of an acorn, that was attached to her belt by a silver chain.

There was something about Callie that made the two yamis uneasy. She looked almost **too** innocent. Surely no one could be that guileless naturally? Not even their lights were that pure! Also, although she was happily conversing with Espa Roba, she became distracted at the slightest sound. Perhaps it was just excitement over being in the tournament, but was that a flicker of anxiety or fear in her eyes?

Rina, the one who had confronted Weevil earlier, was talking with Joey. Judging by how animated the conversation was, complete with laughter and hand motions, they were going over previous duels they had each won.

Her preoccupation gave the yamis ample opportunity to study her.

Rina's hair was blonde, a few shades darker than Callie's, and she wore it up in two short, bouncy pigtails. A lock of hair curved around one side of her face, while her long fringe was swept out of her twinkling dark green eyes to frame the other side. Her strapless golden-yellow top defied gravity with the aid of a thin frill that ran along the upper edge and around the tops of her arms. She wore it like a tunic, with a loose brown belt around her waist. Even her dark blue jeans were slightly unusual, only coming to mid calf and with a wide band of green and gold ribbon instead of cuffs. Her canvas shoes were black and ordinary… except that she'd laced them with gold ribbon. Like Callie, Rina also wore a crystal the size of an acorn attached to her belt, only her crystal was emerald green.

On the surface, Rina appeared to a bright and bubbly girl with a slightly odd fashion sense. From her confrontation of Weevil earlier, they also knew she was a little hotheaded. But the longer Yami and Bakura observed her, the more they noticed that her smiles weren't quite meeting her eyes and her attention wasn't as focused on Joey as they'd believed. Like Nyc and Callie, Rina was keeping a very close eye on everything around her. She didn't seem worried or afraid, just wary.

Avril, the last of the four, sat slightly apart from the others. She was the tallest of the girls and seemed to be the eldest. Considering the way Callie and Rina acted towards her, she was apparently also the unofficial leader of the trio.

Her hair was an odd shade of not-quite-blonde/not-quite-ginger and she wore it in a high ponytail so it cascaded in waves to just below her shoulders, but her face was framed by two long bangs as pure blonde as Callie's hair. Her dark brown eyes were serious, even solemn, and seemed to contain a hint of sorrow even when she was smiling. Although Rina and Joey were laughing right beside her, Avril never once did more than curve her lips into a slight smile. She would have given the impression of being very self-contained and unemotional, were it not for the fact that her sleeveless, and almost strapless, top was of a shimmering material in a very vibrant shade of red. She had teamed it with a straight black skirt that fell modestly to just above her knees and stylish black ankle-boots. Her only item of jewelry was a clear crystal identical to the blue and green ones Callie and Rina wore. Unlike her friends, however, Avril wore her crystal on a silver chain around her neck.

Of the four girls, Avril was the one who made Yami and Bakura the most uneasy. She reminded them rather strongly of Isis. Like the older Egyptian woman, Avril seemed to be very calm and controlled. But just like the other girls, she was tense. The two yamis could tell. It was there in the stiffness of her shoulders and the way in which her eyes constantly searched the surrounding area.

All in all, the four girls didn't seem to be any threat, but still… There was something about them that made Yami and Bakura very wary. They'd learned from previous experience that few people were truly as they appeared to be, and these four girls were acting more than a little suspiciously. They all seemed to be waiting for something, and neither yami believed it was the opening of the tournament!

Yami and Bakura were still watching the girls when it happened.

As one, Nyc, Callie, Rina and Avril all tensed; their attention focused on a single point. The entry to the waiting area. Or rather, the tall young man who was now striding into the waiting area with a beaming smile and an attitude that shouted, 'Admire me for I have arrived and you will soon find out that I am by far the best duelist here!'

The stranger was tall, with broad shoulders and a slender frame almost hidden beneath his oversized clothes. His shoulder-length blonde hair was of a similar shade to Rina's, while his grey eyes surveyed the gathered duelists with an almost unnerving intensity. Aside from that, his face was rather nondescript. It was the kind of face you wouldn't notice in a crowd and even if you did, you'd quickly forget all about it.

His clothes were also rather ordinary, at least compared to what the other duelists were wearing. The loose dark cream top had long sleeves and two black lines around it. It looked expensive, as did the matching pants that he wore low on his hips, his stylish black boots peeking out from beneath the fashionably-too-long slacks.

He looked around for a moment, then his eyes locked on Avril, Rina and Callie. For a single heartbeat, his smile wavered as a look of shock flickered over his face. It was quickly followed by a small frown of annoyance. If Yami and Bakura had not been watching him closely, warned by the girls' obvious unease that something was wrong, they would not have noticed. They would only have seen his broad smile and heard his hearty greeting.

"Well now! Avril! Rina! And sweet little Callie! What an unexpected pleasure! I never thought you three would make it here. The last time I saw you all, you were dueling in the amateur tournaments."

Avril slowly stood up. Rina started to, but a look from the other girl stopped her. She satisfied herself with a glare at the young man instead. Callie was too busy trembling to even consider standing.

Fixing the stranger with an icy gaze, Avril spoke. Her voice was so soft that Bakura and Yami had to strain to hear it. "Evien Sanders… If you come near any of us for the duration of this tournament, you will find yourself awakening in the hospital in several months' time with no recollection of anything except a great deal of pain. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a thread of steel in her voice that sent a shiver up both yamis' spines. She meant every word.

Apparently, the stranger thought so too. His smile slipped slightly and he nodded. "Perfectly." He moved away again, taking a seat up the back near Kaiba and Téa. He tried his smile out on them, only to receive a very irritated bright blue glare in return. Shifting uneasily, he quickly looked away and pretended to study the back of the chair in front of him.

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 3: The Game Begins

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 3: The Game Begins**  
by Shadow's Mirror

The park was filled with spectators and reporters, all vying for the best positions in front of the stage that had been set up for the start of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament. The crowd's excited chatter filled the air. In the area set aside for the participants, it sounded so much like the buzzing of a large swarm of bees that Weevil Underwood couldn't stop himself from smiling and happily humming along with it. The boy leaning on the side of the stage with him, Rex Raptor, eyed his companion warily.

"Do you have to do that? It's really irritating."

Weevil paused to glance at him. "Suffer. I'm having fun." He resumed his humming, but stopped again within moments. "Looks like I'm the only one who is, though." He frowned slightly as he eyed the four girls sitting with Mai Valentine, the Wheeler kid and the green haired brat whose name he could never remember, despite having lost to him in more than one duel. Nyc, Avril, Rina and Callie... He knew them well, having been beaten by them a few times in other tournaments, but he'd never seen them so tense.

"Yeah. They seem a bit on edge, don't they?" Rex unknowingly voiced Weevil's thoughts. "It's probably just excitement or nerves. This is their first major tournament, isn't it? We're all a bit worked up today."

It was true. There was something in the air... excitement mixed with the thrill of the hunt, perhaps? They were about to start a Treasure Quest tournament, after all. But somehow, seeing the four girls so worked up gave Weevil a funny feeling. As if there was something dangerous in the air, as well. He shook off the feeling and shoved the thought to the back of his mind, laughing at himself for being so paranoid.

There was a stir at the entrance to the area where fifteen of the participants in the tournament, and a few of their friends, were gathered. Weevil and Rex both looked over to see what was going on. Both of them scowled when they saw the new arrival.

"Oh look. Seems like the last of us finally decided to show up." Rex couldn't hide his contempt as he watched the blonde boy saunter into the area.

Weevil nodded, but his attention was on the girls rather than his companion's words. "Hey Rex, check out the girls."

Surprised at Weevil's quiet voice, Rex obeyed. He frowned. "Whoa. That's quite a reaction. Think they know him?"

Rex had barely finished speaking when the newcomer spotted the girls and sauntered towards them. His smile was broad and his voice was cheerful as he hailed them. "Well now! Avril! Rina! And sweet little Callie! What an unexpected pleasure! I never thought you three would make it here. The last time I saw you all, you were dueling in the amateur tournaments."

Weevil and Rex both scowled at the words. Neither of them was a stranger to the smaller tournaments that the three girls participated in, and they both sensed the implied insult hidden in the greeting. They watched in silence as Avril stood up, her usual calm manner covered with a layer of ice as she glared at the newcomer. She spoke so softly they wouldn't have heard what she said if they had been standing any further than a few feet away from her.

"Evien Sanders... If you come near any of us for the duration of this tournament, you will find yourself awakening in the hospital in several months' time with no recollection of anything except a great deal of pain. Do I make myself clear?"

Rex let out a nearly inaudible whistle of appreciation and leaned a little towards Weevil to whisper in his ear. "She means it."

Weevil nodded in agreement and watched as the guy's nonchalant manner slipped for a moment. His smile was obviously forced as he nodded. "Perfectly."

As the stranger retreated to the back of the area, Rex and Weevil traded grins. "I'll say this much for Avril, she sure knows how to deliver a good setdown." Rex looked over at the girls and nudged Weevil so he looked as well. "Looks like he's the reason for the tension around here, huh?" His grin faded to a thoughtful frown. "Think maybe they know something we should?"

Weevil shook his head slightly. "Nah. It sounded more like one of those duelist rivalry things to me. You know, like Kaiba and Wheeler. They're always at each other's throats, too."

"Oh yeah. Good point." Rex nodded in agreement, then listened as something caught his attention. "Hey... sounds like they're starting."

"They were probably waiting for that guy to show. Now he's here, we can finally get this party started." Weevil straightened and grinned at Rex, who grinned back.

"Been looking forward to this. I can't wait to kick your tail in the final set of duels."

"Oh yeah? Well if you even make it that far, it will be your tail being kicked! By me! Ha!" Weevil's eyes gleamed as he drew himself up proudly.

Rex smirked. "Uh huh... you just keep right on believing that, Underwood. I just love to see false confidence crumble to dust beneath the feet of my dinosaurs."

Before Weevil could retaliate, a voice interrupted them. "If you two idiots would stop making googoo eyes at each other... we're all supposed to go onto the stage now."

The two boys turned fierce glares onto Joey. "We are not idiots!" Rex growled before he stormed off, Weevil hurrying to follow.

Joey shook his head and grinned at the others with him. "They deny that... but not the googoo eyes thing."

Mai snickered. "Give them a while. They can probably only deal with one insult at a time."

Weevil came hurrying back and glared at Joey, pointing a finger at him. "We were not making 'googoo eyes' at each other, either! Our relationship is none of your business!" With an unvoiced 'so there!' hanging in the air, he hurried off again, leaving a stunned silence in his wake.

A silence soon broken by Téa, voicing everyone's thoughts. "Relationship? Ew!"

- - -

The opening ceremony was pretty typical for a dueling tournament. A band played and then the announcer gave what was obviously intended to be a humorous introduction to the tournament and the participating duelists. Also typically, the humour fell flatter than a week old pancake that had been run over by a steamroller a few times. The duelists waved, except for Marik who set the crowd into gales of laughter by performing a grand and intricate bow until a red-faced Malik pulled him back in line with the rest of them. Then they were each given their first clue before they all filed off the stage and down the stairs, into the area where they had been waiting earlier.

Marik looked quite disappointed when he received his clue envelope. Fortunately Malik was able to tow him off the stage and down the stairs before he could voice his question. "Is this it? With all the fuss they were making, I was sure he was going to give us something good. Like candy."

Odion shuddered at the already-hyped-up-on sugar boy's mention of more sugar. Isis patted his shoulder reassuringly.

The chairman of the tournament committee came down from the stage. "Gather around, please." Without waiting more than a few seconds for them to do so, he began his speech. "We are about to begin the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament! In ten minutes' time, a bell will ring. That will be your signal to begin. You have until then to read your first clue and try to puzzle out its meaning. Best of luck to you all!"

Marik had opened his envelope before the man had even finished talking. Joey and Malik were right behind him and the others weren't far behind them, either.

There was a moment of stunned silence as they all read their clues, then Marik burst out laughing. "Oh this is gonna be so much fun!" The others all blinked at him, then went back to trying to decipher their rather obscure clues.

When the bell rang, only Marik and Malik immediately headed off. The others had to sit down and puzzle out their clues for a while longer. Yugi was the first to work his out, and the others followed suit, setting off one by one to find their first duel location in the city, until only Evien and the three girls, Avril, Rina and Callie, were left.

Evien stood up and stretched, then smiled at the girls, but it was not his usual smooth smile. Instead, it was cold and thin and his voice held more than a little malice as he spoke to them. "Best of luck, girls. You're going to need it. Maybe you should pull out now, before things get... rough... for all of you. There's no way any of you can possibly beat me." He was still smirking as he walked out of the area.

Callie shivered as she and Rina looked at Avril. "He's right. He's too strong for us."

Rina glared in the direction he'd gone. "We're better duelists and he knows it. But Callie's right." She sighed and turned her head, her eyes seeking and locking with Avril's. "He's grown stronger. A lot stronger."

Avril nodded, looking troubled. "I know. That troubles me, also. However, for the time being, all we can do is participate in the tournament to the best of our ability and wait for him to make the first move. We know our part in this. That will have to be enough, for now."

In agreement, the three girls headed off to find their first duels.

- - -

The tournament was broadcast live on a special TV station and by the end of the first day, it was obvious that some duelists were having an easier time of it than others.

Yugi Mutou had the honour to be the first duelist to locate his first duel, however it was Seto Kaiba who had the first win.

Debate raged through the city for days afterwards as to whether three turns really counted as a duel.

Mai Valentine and Isis Ishtar followed soon after Yugi's win, all three having duels of a more reasonable length, as did Ryou Bakura and Espa Roba just after them.

Much to the surprise of the many who had scoffed at the inclusion of the four girls from the smaller tournament circuit, Nyc Lyons, Avril Kensington, Rina Price and Callie Logan all won their first Championship level duels on their first tries.

Which was more than could be said for Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood and Evien Sanders.

Rex managed to win on his fourth attempt and Weevil on his fifth, but everyone watching agreed that it was Evien's two duels that were the most baffling of the day.

The first one lasted for almost two hours, with Evien using a lot of cards that froze his opponent or prevented him from attacking... but then didn't take advantage of the opportunities to attack and end the duel quickly. He seemed to be playing like a complete amateur, but some of his moves were a little too smooth. It was almost as if he was playing under his true ability and toying with his opponent. The duel official he was dueling against apparently got rather irritated about it. In a move that proved that the officials were indeed the pro duelists that had been rumoured during the lead-up to the competition, the official quickly turned the tables on the startled boy and won the match.

Evien's second battle against him was short and... well... quite a few of the watching experts would later use the word 'brutal' to describe the manner in which he systematically decimated his opponent's monsters. The duel lasted for barely twenty minutes, with Evien showing no mercy and emerging the victor. He accepted his rare card and next clue with a hearty smile and looked more than a little smug.

Malik and Marik Ishtar and Joey Wheeler also won their first duels the first time around, but they all had a little trouble reaching their duel locations.

It didn't seem to phase Malik and Marik, who both happily trotted over to the duel officials when they finally found them. Malik greeted his with the words 'you wouldn't believe how many pet shops there are in this city', which more or less made sense since his duel location was in the parking lot of the Domino City Aquarium. Apparently he had misinterpreted his clue to mean an aquarium in a pet shop. As for Marik, his greeting was a cheerful 'I love muffins! Let's duel!'

As Marik's duel was outside a bowling alley... that only made sense to Marik.

Joey ran up to the official at his location with barely a minute to go before the five o'clock deadline, then had to take that minute to catch his breath from having run most of the way there. Since he'd made it there before the deadline, the official had permitted the duel to take place. Fifteen minutes and an easy win to Joey later, the stunned official handed over the next clue and a rare card. Taking pity on the boy who gave him such a sheepish grin as he thanked him for 'a great game', the official offered Joey a little advice.

"Try not to cut it so close, next time. Most duelists duel better when they're not panting for breath."

- - -

As well as the live broadcast, the TV station also aired a 'Recap Show' each evening, covering all of the day's duels, so the competing duelists could study each other's techniques before the finals, when eight of them would need to compete against each other. The duels in the tournament got progressively harder and had been given labels from 'level 1' for the first duel through to 'level 5', which was the last duel the competitors needed to win to get the final clue that would lead them to where the finals were being held. Since the show's announcer revealed the level of each duel before it was shown, the Recap Show made it possible for the duelists to work out how they were doing in the competition, overall.

Watching the show in his hotel room on the first night of the tournament, Evien Sanders was quite satisfied with what he saw. All of the competitors had won a single duel, putting them all on the same level. All he had to do was make sure that he kept finding the locations and winning the duels and he would definitely be in the top eight. After all, as the duels got harder, some of the others were certain to fall behind.

He thought of Rina and Callie and sneered to himself. Oh yes. Some of them would definitely fail to win all of their duels. Those two girls were so weak.

His sneer shifted into a grimace as an image of Avril popped into his mind as well. She... could be a problem.

But he would deal with her, just as he would deal with anyone who threatened his victory.

When Evien slept that night, his dreams were pleasantly filled with the images of the three girls begging him to show them mercy.

- - -

A slender body slipped through a barely open door and onto a balcony. The slight shadowy figure crept to the railing and leaned against it, standing silent and still, head lifted towards the sky. A gentle breeze ruffled the figure's hair, bringing a soft sigh of pleasure that the whisper of the breeze easily covered. Even so, the figure tensed at the sound and half turned, instinctively listening to make sure that the one inside was still sleeping. When no noise came, the figure turned back and leaned on the railing again.

The Recap Show had been a concern. But so far, the truth remained hidden.

The one inside had taken the list of duels won as proof that all the tournament competitors were still evenly matched. In reality, the figure knew that a duel won earlier in the day gave the duelist more time to search for the next duel's location. Even if they didn't make it all the way there before the five o'clock deadline, it gave them a head start for the following day.

The Recap Show had told how many duels each duelist in the competition had won, but it had made no mention of when in the day the duel had been held.

There was still time. Even if it were just one more day... it would help.

As long as Evien believed he was in the top eight, everything would be fine.

To be continued...


	5. Chapter 4: The Game Continues

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 4: The Game Continues**  
by Shadow's Mirror

The second day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament dawned with clear skies and great excitement in the hearts of the sixteen duelists who were participating in the contest.

According to the competition's rules, all the entrants had to gather at 9am on each day of the contest at the park where the event had been opened. That way, none of the entrants would have an advantage and they could start off each day on an equal footing. In theory, it was a good idea, but in reality there were quite a few grumbles about it as the duelists gathered on the second day.

"I don't see why we have to come here each day. Waste of time." Weevil Underwood scowled.

Rex Raptor nodded in reluctant agreement. "It's a good idea, but it's also a pain." He shrugged in response to the curious looks his comment earned him. "My next duel is on the other side of town from here. Our hotel was closer."

Yugi, Malik and Joey all nodded. At least, Joey did something that could have been a nod if he hadn't been panting so hard. He'd obviously run all the way to the park so he wouldn't be late.

"Nyc and I don't lose out in that way." Mai smiled at the boys as she gained their attention. "We're in the hotel just over there." She gestured to the major five star luxury hotel in front of the park.

Joey managed a weak whistle. "Doing the contest in style, huh Mai?" He grinned at her.

"Something like that." Mai grinned back at him.

Bakura's attention had been caught. "So if you're rooming with her... where is she?"

"She made the same mistake she made yesterday." Mai grinned at Bakura. "She asked at the desk if we'd had any messages and they gave her so much mail she had to take it back up to the room."

Bakura smirked. "So who's the popular one? You or her?"

Mai's smile was quite wicked as she replied to the white-haired yami. "Both of us. I break a lot of hearts and Nyc keeps in touch with most of the kids she duels against in the smaller tournaments."

Kaiba snorted and looked away. Apparently he was still annoyed from the day before, when he'd been rendered speechless by Nyc's comeback to his complaints about her and the other girls being in the competition. Any mention of the smaller tournament circuit was enough to remind him.

Isis smiled at Seto as she joined the group. "Did you see the recap of the day's duels last night?" Her smile was a little too sweet.

Seto scowled at her and briskly nodded. "Of course." He'd seen the television recap show all right. It had shown quite clearly that all of the duelists in the tournament were more than a little skilled in the game. Including all five of the duelists Kaiba had been complaining about the day before.

"I thought so." Isis's smile became quite smug.

The brunette's scowl deepened and he turned away without replying. Talking to someone who could see things that you'd rather not be seen could be very irritating. Unfortunately, his movement brought the three approaching girls into his line of sight. His scowl immediately deepened more.

Callie winced at Kaiba's expression and bit her lip, looking very timid and worried. "Uh... sorry... we didn't mean to interrupt anything."

Kaiba almost winced and his scowl faded. "You didn't. Isis was saying something annoying."

Isis smiled gently at Callie. "Seto was frowning over what I said, not at you and the others."

"Oh. Good." Callie smiled happily, the sweet smile lighting up her face.

Kaiba looked away as if embarrassed, although surely something as simple as a girl's smile wouldn't have that sort of effect on him.

A little girl of perhaps eight years old was peeking out at the group from behind a nearby tree. She was dressed in a pretty sundress as blue as the sky and her black hair was caught up in slightly lopsided pigtails. Her attention seemed to be focused on the girls, but when she realised that Kaiba was looking at her, her brown eyes went wide.

"Kaiba? Hey, Kaiba!"

"What?" Kaiba snapped as he whirled to look at the cause of the annoying distraction. He scowled at Joey.

"I said, the officials are here. It's time to get this party started." Joey frowned at the tense brunette. "What's up with you? You're awfully touchy today."

"There was a..." Kaiba started to gesture towards the tree where the girl was. Or rather, where the girl had been. Frowning, he glanced around, then mentally shrugged. Pushing the vague uneasiness that he had no reason to be feeling to the back of his mind, he looked at Joey again. "Nothing is 'up with' me." He started to head off to where the officials were waiting and most of the other duelists in the tournament were already gathered.

Joey followed Kaiba, but he was obviously not happy with the brunette's response. "Don't give me that, Kaiba. I know you well enough to know when something's wrong. You've got that 'don't talk to me because I'm ticked off and will bite your head off' look to you. Even Téa's staying clear and she's normally so close that you can't get a card between you. Well it's true!" He shrugged off the glare that was shot in his direction. "What's going on?"

Kaiba sighed to himself. This blonde mutt could be so annoying at times. Still... "There was a child. She seemed a little too interested in the girls. There was something about her, however..." He trailed off, frowning to himself.

"But you can't quite put your finger on what was odd with her? Little girl, about seven or eight with black pigtails?" At Kaiba's surprised look, Joey shrugged. "I've seen her a couple of times now. She was here yesterday too. I don't think she's a fan, though. I saw her with Callie."

"What? When?" Kaiba ignored the waiting officials who were frowning at them. It was still a few minutes to nine. If he wished to have a conversation instead of joining the others, then he would.

"Yesterday afternoon. I was looking for my duel and I saw Callie doing the same thing. She was about to cross the street at the far end of the block from me, but I'm sure it was her. That little girl was with her." Joey stopped Kaiba before he could interrupt. "Before you ask, no, the kid wasn't stalking her. Callie was holding her hand. Maybe they're sisters or something."

Kaiba arched an eyebrow. "Wheeler... genetics are not that arbitrary."

Joey blinked and made the most eloquent reply he could. "Huh?"

"She looks nothing like Callie."

"Oh." Joey frowned. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Kaiba just shook his head and joined the others, not willing to lower himself to the blonde's level any further than he already had.

Nyc had joined the group while Kaiba and Joey had been talking but they were still one short. The officials were looking at their watches and muttering to themselves and the other duelists were also starting to get rather annoyed. When Evien sauntered into view at one minute to nine, there were more than a few glares in his direction. Even the officials looked irritated at his laid back attitude to time and went on with the opening of that day of the tournament without any further delay.

As the announcer droned on about the contest rules and other information that had been covered the day before and that no one really cared about... except possibly for Marik who was listening intently and nudging Malik with loudly whispered comments like 'hey did you know that?' and 'wow, really?'... Kaiba caught himself looking around for the child he had spotted earlier.

Wheeler's words had concerned him. Not only about her possible connection to one of the girls, but his implication that he too had felt that something was not quite right about the girl.

Although Kaiba normally discounted Wheeler's ideas and conversations out of principle, he had to admit that the teen's instincts were usually quite good.

Then the second day of the tournament was announced as being open and all thoughts of quickly disappearing little girls and blonde teenagers with irritating instincts rushed out of Kaiba's mind. Those sorts of things would have to wait until later. There were more important things to think about. Like strategy and tactics and where he had to go to find his next opponent.

It was time to duel!

- - -

For the second day in a row, Yugi was the first to find his duel location. This time, though, he was also the first to win.

When he got his next clue, he blinked at it and then sighed softly. He knew the logo; it belonged to a chain of fast food restaurants around the city. The problem was, as the logo was the only thing on the card, he had no way of knowing which restaurant the next duel was at. Sitting down on a set of steps nearby, Yugi slipped into his soulroom so he and Yami could work out, through a process of elimination, the likeliest places to search first.

Mai was the second duelist to find her match, with Avril and Bakura right behind her, and narrowly took the second win of the day ahead of Kaiba, despite him only taking ten minutes to win his duel.

Again, the city buzzed for the rest of the day with discussions on whether five turns counted as a duel, but this time they also added comments of sympathy for the poor official who had nearly been reduced to tears when he had lost all three of his defence monsters and most of his life points in one turn, thanks to Kaiba's trio of Blue Eyes White Dragons.

Avril and Bakura's matches were of a more reasonable duration. A combination of lucky draws, good tactics and a thorough knowledge of their cards added up to easy wins for both of them.

About the time they were finishing up, five more duelists located their matches.

Nyc had needed to go halfway across town from the starting point, but once she got there she proved yet again that her practice in the smaller tournaments had prepared her well for this larger competition. She won in under half an hour with some nice monster and spell combo attacks.

Isis took a little longer to win her duel, but that was mainly because her opponent used the Swords of Light against her. She played with her usual calm efficiency and didn't seem to be in any sort of hurry either throughout the duel or after she won, judging by the way she instructed Odion to drive them to a nearby restaurant for lunch while she learned the location of her next duel.

Rina had trouble finding her duel and that seemed to worry her. She was obviously tense and it affected her game, causing her to make several bad decisions early on. Eventually though, she managed to turn the tables on her opponent and won the duel. Then she was off in search of her next opponent, obviously eager to make up for lost time.

Callie also had a few problems finding her match and her duel lasted for over an hour, but she remained bright and cheerful all the way through to the last play, even when it looked like she was going to lose all her lifepoints a couple of times. She also didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to leave and chatted to the official for a few minutes before a little girl with black pigtails tugged at the bottom of her shirt and said in a voice that was little more than a whisper, "Callie, I am hungry."

While Callie was promising the child that lunch was their next stop, Espa finally won his match. He'd made a serious mistake the first time and had lost the duel, but he'd made up for it with a good solid game in his second attempt. He hadn't done anything flashy, but he'd been lucky enough to draw some good cards, so the win was a fairly easy one for him.

While all of those duels were being played, most of the remaining duelists in the competition had also managed to locate their duels, with one addition.

Yugi proved that he deserved the title of King of Games by being the first to find the location of his second duel for that day. Being a level three duel, it wasn't an easy win, but he managed it just as Kaiba stepped out of his car and stalked towards his own second duel, on the other side of the city.

Kaiba had been caught in two traffic jams and a detour due to roadworks, so he was not in a good mood, but that only served to sharpen his mind. Fifteen minutes and four turns later, his opponent's defences shattered under the onslaught of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Kaiba won the match.

But for once, it wasn't Kaiba's brute force win that was the talk of the city that afternoon. Instead, it was Evien's duel that everyone spoke of, their voices ranging from shocked to disapproving. Except for those who truly loved the Duel Monsters Game. They were simply disgusted.

Evien didn't seem too happy about having taken all morning to find the location for his match and it was obvious from his first move that he had no intention of dragging the duel out as he had the day before. His game was ruthless; his moves calculated to deal out maximum damage to his opponent without letting a little thing like the protection of his own monsters get in his way. He gave up three good monsters to lure his opponent into traps and a few more became sacrifices for bigger, stronger monsters. His attacks were brutal, but it was his obvious disregard for his own cards, rather than the way he used them, that people watching the duel muttered over.

Most duelists treated their cards with respect, knowing that they would win or lose based on their cards and the luck of the draw as much as their own skill. There was a superstition that the cards themselves could influence the game. Some duelists claimed that if you mistreated your cards, you would be cursed with a run of bad luck until you earned the cards' trust again.

Of course, most people considered that to be a load of pocky, but it did seem to happen quite a bit out of pure coincidence. Not to Evien though. He had no trouble at all with his deck.

As soon as Evien won his match, it was obvious that he was planning on hurrying to his next duel, but he took a moment to smile charmingly at the female official who's cards he had just decimated, when he noticed her checking some sort of electronic timetable she had. "So, just off the record, how is everyone else doing? I haven't had time to check out the live broadcast today."

The official eyed Evien thoughtfully before she quietly answered him. "Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba won their duels just before you." It wasn't the whole truth, but she wasn't in the mood to say more.

Evien's eyes widened and then he smiled again, obviously delighted at the news. "So I'm coming in third? Oh, I guess I should slow down, then. I wouldn't want to make the others look too bad, after all. Thanks for the info!" He winked at her and sauntered off, no longer in a hurry.

The official wrinkled her nose in disgust but refrained from voicing her opinion of him and set about preparing for the next duelist to arrive there, content in her minor bit of revenge for her loss.

Malik and Marik showed up at their respective duel locations within minutes of each other and both won within minutes of each other, too. Although, the bags they both had with them and Marik's cheerful 'sorry I'm late, there was a sale' seemed to indicate that their timing was due less to their bond as 'twins' being so strong and more to the fact that they'd been having fun in the city together and had almost forgotten that they were in a competition.

Aside from Espa, the only other duelists who had trouble winning their matches the first time around was Rex and Weevil. Both teens finally managed to locate their matches about the same time as Yugi found his second duel of the day, but winning those matches proved to be tough for them.

Rex needed four tries before he finally managed to squish his opponent, and even then it was only because of a lucky draw that enabled him to get one of his strongest cards onto the field.

Weevil only needed three attempts, but his first two failed so completely that he wasn't even able to boast about needing one less than Rex. Of course, when he did win, he immediately puffed himself up and boasted loudly that everyone would be talking about his glorious victory.

Unfortunately, his glorious victory had happened at the exact same time as Isis's win of her second duel that day, which had made for far more interesting viewing. Weevil's win, and his entire third duel for that matter, hadn't even made it onto the live coverage being shown around the world.

Shortly after that, in a very nice performance and what was considered to be one of the better duels of the day, Avril managed to make winning her second duel that day look quite easy.

Nyc followed a few minutes later with her own win, although no one got to see it as the live coverage editor seemed to have developed a bit of a crush on Avril and the coverage showed her as she received her prize card and the clue to her next duel location, instead of the end of Nyc's match.

During Avril and Nyc's matches, the other duelists who had won their first duels of the day fairly early began to show up at their second duel locations, too. The first of them, Rina, won her match easily. That set the tone for the others. Within half an hour, Callie, Mai, Espa and Bakura had all won their second duels as well.

Despite the duels being more difficult at level three, Espa had none of the trouble he'd struck earlier that morning. He showed all the reasons why he was considered to be a champion-level duelist.

Bakura had seemed to be rather irritated when he arrived at his match, but half an hour of slowly draining the lifepoints away from his opponent cheered him up quite nicely. After getting his next clue, he looked at the time. "Quarter past four. A half hour or so searching and then home." He smiled a little as he headed off.

His smile turned into a sigh as Ryou, from his soulroom, informed Bakura that he needed to pick up a few things for dinner. Because of the five o'clock curfew on the participating duelists, that meant just one thing.

"Scratch the half hour of searching. Where's the nearest grocery store?"

The last duel for that day was also a rather odd one.

It was half past four when Joey stumbled into view of the official waiting for him at the location of his first duel for that day. The official, the same woman who had dueled against Evien earlier in the day, couldn't hold back a gasp when she saw him.

His T-shirt was wet with sweat and he was flushed and panting heavily. He looked completely worn out. Despite that though, he managed to give her a smile and a wave. "Hey. I'm not too late, am I?" He had to force the words out in between gasps of breath.

The official quickly shook her head. "Not at all. There's plenty of time. We have half an hour yet, so just catch your breath for a few minutes."

Joey smiled a little. "I'm okay. Really." Despite his words, he did take another half minute to catch his breath enough so he wasn't gasping. Then he took up his position on the dueling arena.

The duel lasted barely twenty minutes and on the surface, it seemed that it had been strikingly similar to Evien's earlier duel.

Like Evien, Joey had left monsters in attack mode to tempt his opponent into attacking... but the trap and spell cards he had used had protected his monsters, rather than activating upon their defeat as Evien's trap and spell cards had.

Like Evien, Joey had used some monsters as sacrifices to bring out stronger monsters... but the look in his eyes each time he had done so had been one of regret and gratitude to the monsters helping him in his duel, not sneers or smirks at how powerful his new monsters were.

Joey also used a couple of his monsters before he sacrificed them, proving that he valued them for their own strengths and didn't consider them to be useless and only good for sacrificing.

His attitude to his opponent was also completely different. When he won, he didn't plaster on a fake smile and say 'oh, guess I win this one, huh?' Instead, his smile was genuine and his handshake firm as he thanked the official for a 'great game'.

After receiving his prize card and the clue to his next duel, Joey started to head off. The official hesitated, then spoke up. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

Joey smiled sweetly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just ran around a bit too much today. Thanks for asking. See you and thanks again. It was a great duel."

- - -

So the second day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament came to a close. But once the game was over for the day... that was when the real work started for the duelists.

The 'Recap Show' showed the highlights of all the duels played that day and was a good way for the competitors to check out each other's playing style and come up with ideas and strategies that might work against them. The show also stated the level of the duel, so everyone watching could tell how well each of the competitors was doing in the tournament, overall.

With the last stage of the tournament made up of duels between the top eight competitors, it was a vital source of information.

So when Seto Kaiba received a phone call barely a minute before the show started, just as he'd sat down with a cool drink to watch it, he was not pleased.

"This had better be good." He didn't waste time with the niceties as he snarled into the phone.

"It is." The slightly-less-than-completely-calm voice on the other end of the line, coupled with the fact that Isis had not done her usual 'thank you, Seto, I am fine, how are you?' greeting, told Kaiba immediately that something was very, very wrong.

"Marik and Malik are trying to take over the world again?" From anyone else, that line would have been a joke. From Kaiba to Isis, it was a distinct possibility.

"I am afraid it may be more serious than that." Isis's reply caused Kaiba's eyebrows to both take up residence in his hair.

"I'm listening."

"Nine blocks to the West of the Kaiba Corp. building, there is an alley. I have just seen Joey there. He was lying on the ground. I hope that he was merely unconscious, but I cannot be sure."

The moment Isis said 'seen', Kaiba winced. When she said 'Joey', he sneered. But at the words 'lying on the ground'... he tensed. By the time she'd finished speaking, he was already barking orders to the head of his security team at Kaiba Corp. through his cellphone.

After confirming that he was to bring the one he found in that alley back to the Kaiba estate if he was merely unconscious, and take him to the hospital if it was more serious, the brunette teen returned his attention to Isis. "I'm having him brought back here. Do you have any idea what's happened?"

"I am hoping that it is merely exhaustion that has claimed him. However... after the other vision I had a little while ago, I cannot be certain."

It was the slight tremble of fear in her voice that caught Kaiba's attention. "What's wrong?" He refused to ask her what she had seen. He was willing to believe that she somehow knew things at times that others didn't, but that was entirely different from believing that she received visions through a magical necklace.

"Nothing... yet. But I saw the streets of Domino being covered by a shadow and there was a feel of evil and impending doom in the air."

Kaiba sighed. "A shadow? Impending doom? So it is Malik and Marik then?"

"No, Seto." Isis's voice was still tinged with fear. "This evil... was true evil. Like nothing either of us has seen or felt before. Unspeakable and terrible things are going to happen... soon. Very soon. I only hope that Joey has not already fallen victim to it." She took a steadying breath, which told Kaiba far more than anything she could have said.

"I'll let you know how Wheeler is as soon as he gets here."

As a reply, it wasn't a particularly good one. As a reassurance, it was the most that he could give and more by far than he once would have offered.

As he put down the phone and returned his attention to the television, Kaiba found himself hoping that for only the second time in her life, Isis was wrong about what she had seen.

- - -

The Recap Show that night had been a particularly good one, but for Evien Sanders it had also brought a shocking realisation.

From what he had learned earlier in the day, he had believed himself to be in third place, but now he knew that he was really coming eleventh. That wasn't nearly good enough.

He paced his hotel room, furious and more worried than he would admit even to himself. All of his carefully constructed plans would be meaningless if he failed to make it into the top eight, but as things stood at the moment, that wasn't looking likely. Of the ones that mattered, only the two strongest in the tournament were playing exactly as he had predicted they would. Some of the others in the tournament were nowhere near as strong as he'd heard and others were playing far beyond what he thought them capable of.

The thought echoed in his mind and he frowned as he reconsidered it. No, that wasn't quite true.

Calming a little, he sat down on the edge of his bed again and carefully thought through what he'd learned about the duels that day.

He began to smile.

Maybe things weren't as bad as he had thought.

- - -

The little girl whimpered softly and tried to burrow in more closely to the girl holding her. "It hurts."

Callie bit her lip and forced herself not to cry. She had to stay strong. She couldn't give in to her fear. She hugged the little girl tightly. "I know, Emi. Not much longer. I promise."

She looked up as Avril came into the room. Avril smiled a little at Callie and the child and nodded. "We are going now. We will not be long. Remember, if anything happens..."

Callie nodded. "I know. I'll do it."

Rina poked her head into the room, frowning. "Avril, come on! We're going to lose our prey."

Avril winced at the word. "I really wish you would not use that term." Her hand lifted and lightly touched the white crystal she wore on a silver chain around her neck.

"You're too fussy. Now come on, it's time to go!"

Callie bit her lip. "Be careful. Don't get caught."

Avril smiled and nodded. "Do not worry. We can do that much, at least."

Then the two girls were gone and Callie was left comforting a sobbing child when she was close to tears herself.

She could only hope that things went according to plan.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 5: Something in the Air

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 5: Something in the Air**  
by Shadow's Mirror

The third day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament dawned quite differently from the day before. The skies were covered in ominous dark clouds and while some of the duelists put the odd tension in the air down to a storm coming, or their own excitement about the contest, the others hoped it was something that simple. Because to them... it felt more like trouble brewing.

All of the contestants were due to meet at the park at nine o'clock for the day's start off ceremony, but most of them were awake and preparing long before that time.

Although the officials were stunned to see so many of the entrants arrive at the park at seven, none of the teenagers were at all surprised that they'd all had the same idea.

The rules of the contest said that they couldn't go anywhere after five o'clock in the afternoon, so it would be impossible for them all to meet up in the evening, but there was no rule that said they couldn't meet up at the park before the start of the day's events.

They were silent as they gathered a short distance away from where the officials were straightening up the stage in preparation for the opening ceremony, merely nodding to each other in greeting. Even Téa was more subdued than her usual energetic self. When she saw Kaiba coming towards her, Joey and Mokuba following him, she merely held out her hand to him.

If any of the others had needed any indication how serious things were, they got it from the way Kaiba silently took Téa's hand and held it as he looked around the group.

"I see we all had the same idea." He was the one to break the silence and the others seemed to relax a little at the sound of his quiet voice, as if the unusual stillness had been making them uneasy.

Yugi nodded. "As soon as I woke up this morning, I knew we'd be meeting here. This feeling in the air..." He looked around the group and was rewarded with nods of agreement. Yugi returned his attention to Kaiba. "There's something wrong. Very wrong."

Kaiba sighed and scowled at the shorter duelist. "Not more of that... magic nonsense?"

Yugi hesitated, considering. After a few moments, he shrugged. "I'm not sure, Seto. It could just be the tension from the contest. Maybe the others are nervous and the rest of us are picking up on it. But Yami doesn't think so and neither do I. There's something... strange. It's not just this morning, either. It started late last night. Not long after the recap show."

"I know." Kaiba's reply was so soft, the others could barely hear him. "Although I was rather distracted at the time, I noticed it then, too."

"Your distraction wouldn't have anything to do with Wheeler being with you, would it?" Bakura, for once, didn't mean anything insinuating by what he said, but Kaiba still bristled at him.

"If you must know, yes. Isis called me last night, just as the show was starting. Joey had collapsed in an alley, not far from Kaiba Corp. headquarters. He came around just as the show was ending."

Yugi gasped and shot a shocked look at his best friend. "Joey! Are you all right? What happened?"

Joey looked rather sheepish. "Yeah, I'm fine, Yug. Don't worry. I was just... a bit tired. That's all. I had a good night's sleep and I'm ready and raring to go."

"This idiot has spent the past two days running all over the city without any transport." Kaiba's voice was a low, obviously irritated, growl that had everyone arching their eyebrows at him before his words sank in. Then they all blinked in surprise at Joey.

Again, Joey looked sheepish. "Uh... yeah. Well... I don't have a car and I... well... I sort of... can't afford busses or trains at the moment."

The others winced and Yugi looked guilty. "Oh Joey, you should have said something! We'll help you out. You know that."

"I didn't want to bother anyone." Joey shrugged and patted his friend's shoulder. "It's fine now, thanks, Yug. Kaiba's lending me a car and driver for the rest of the tournament."

Bakura arched an eyebrow at the scowling brunette. "He is?"

Kaiba glared back at the annoying former tombrobber. "I am."

He expanded his glare to include everyone else there; including the girl by his side who was gazing at him as if he'd told her that he'd hung the moon in the sky just for her. "Don't go reading anything into this. I'm not helping him out of some bizarre sense of charity or friendship or some rubbish like that. I merely don't want a repeat of last night. Besides..." His scowl relaxed a little as he glanced at an obviously embarrassed Joey. "My victory in this tournament wouldn't be complete if I didn't get to humiliate him in the finals, and for that he has to be there."

Joey frowned at Kaiba. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd think you'd just cracked a joke."

"Me? Joke? Never happen." Kaiba's lips twitched ever so slightly before he became serious again. "The chances of you even being in the finals at the moment aren't good."

"Yeah." Joey sighed. "I've got my work cut out for me, all right." He grinned his usual cheerful grin. "But I'm sure I'll manage somehow. Then I'll take you on, and take you down!"

Kaiba's lips twitched again. "Well I hope you are more well rested when we duel than you are right now. A good night's sleep, you said before? I find that hard to believe. You tossed and turned all night."

"No, that was a good night." Joey frowned slightly. "I normally sleep like a log but I've woken myself up a few times over the past three or four nights. Last night was the only time I slept through." He looked at Kaiba. "It wasn't just the running around town that did me in, yesterday."

Kaiba frowned at that and Yugi bit his lip, looking worried. "Yami told me this morning that I've been very restless for the past few nights, too. He put it down to my being excited about this tournament, but now you've said that... and with this odd feeling in the air... he's wondering."

Isis also looked troubled. "Malik has been like that, as well," she quietly confirmed. "He usually sleeps very soundly, but for the past two… no… three nights, he has tossed and turned almost constantly. Marik has been even worse for two nights longer. My own sleep has not been untroubled, either. Nor has Odion's."

That struck alarm bells with Bakura. "It doesn't take much to disturb Ryou, but he's been fine all week, except for last night. I thought it was just the tournament, too." He glanced at Yugi. As much as he hated to admit that he'd had the same thought as the other Spirit, this was starting to sound like something important enough to demand nothing but the complete truth.

Téa and Tristan also admitted that they slept restlessly the night before, but no longer than that. With the exception of Ryou, it seemed that the stronger the person was in the Shadow Magic, or even just in calling or hearing the Heart of the Cards, the longer their sleep had been disturbed for.

Kaiba was the last to admit to it. "Mokuba and I have been the same. Mokuba woke me last night when he fell out of bed. As for me…" He hesitated and looked away, unwilling to admit the truth but knowing that the others needed to hear it. When he finally spoke, he growled it out as though daring anyone to comment on it. "About a week."

"So, you were the first to be affected by whatever is causing this," Yugi said very softly, a thoughtful look on his face. Kaiba nodded stiffly. He hesitated and then sighed heavily.

"There's something else. I've been having… an odd dream for the past few nights," he added reluctantly. "The same one, every night." Everyone's attention immediately focused on him and he shifted uneasily beneath their intent gazes. They all remembered what had happened during Battle City. Although the vision had been caused by his proximity to the Millennium Rod, it didn't alter the fact that he'd had a vision. A fact which Joey, Tristan and Duke were only too happy to point out at least once every few days.

"An empty workshop… no, not empty, abandoned. The benches covered with alchemy equipment side by side with tools such as those a metalsmith might use. The shelves filled with ancient books with mystical symbols upon their faded covers. A sense of a time long past and a powerful magic. A sense of great evil… but also great good." Isis's voice was soft and oddly dreamlike. A faint hint of colour appeared in her cheeks when she realised that everyone was looking at her. She focused on Kaiba, who had gone extremely pale. "That is what I have been seeing in my dreams."

Kaiba jerked his head in silent confirmation, still looking more than a little shaken at learning that he wasn't the only one having that particular dream. A slight frown crossed his face as something tugged relentlessly at his mind, though. There was something else. Something important that Isis had left out… "The room… it looked as though there had been a struggle there. Chairs and equipment were overturned, there was a glass bottle broken on the floor and…"

It was only a moment's hesitation, a quick glance at Mokuba as though Kaiba wasn't sure if he should say the rest in his younger brother's hearing or not, then Kaiba sighed and continued. "There was a dagger on the floor near the bottle. The blade…" Again, he hesitated.

Malik suddenly interrupted, his expression as serious as any of them had ever seen it. "The blade was stained with blood." At his sister and Kaiba's surprised looks, Malik shook his head slightly. "I didn't see the rest. At least… not clearly enough to make out what anything was. It was all just a jumble of colours and… feelings. A lot of rage and pain. Shock. Betrayal. But over it all was this powerful sadness. The dagger was the only thing I saw." Malik trailed off, his hand shifting to the Millennium Rod that was sticking out of his jeans pocket. He looked around at everyone, then away, then back again. He raised his head defiantly and his lavender eyes flashed, daring them to laugh at him. But no one laughed.

Bakura spoke into the sudden silence, his voice unusually soft and with just a hint of gentleness in it. Everyone had to look twice to make sure it really was him talking, and not his light back in command of his body. "Of all of us... Malik would know those emotions best. Maybe that's why his dream focused more on the feelings than the scenery."

He had a good point. Even Kaiba nodded in agreement with it.

Yugi looked around at the others. "So... we have restless sleep, odd dreams and a strange feeling in the air, a bit like the stillness right before a bad storm. That's not much to go on."

Isis sighed softly. "There is one more thing. I had a vision not long before the one about Joey."

As Isis told the others what she had told Kaiba about an ominous shadow being cast over the city, a soft vibration in his pocket distracted the brunette teen.

He answered his cellphone with his usual terse 'what is it?' then immediately began to frown. After a minute or so, he spoke again. "Call me if there's any more news." His voice was soft and so different from his initial tone that Téa instinctively tightened her hold on his hand.

"Seto? What's wrong?"

Kaiba looked at his more-or-less girlfriend and hesitated, then sighed softly and looked around at the others. "That was the head of my security team. After Isis told me about... what she had seen... last night, I asked him to keep an ear open for anything unusual." He looked around the group again and this time he couldn't quite hide how disturbed he was.

"Seto?" Téa squeezed his hand gently, trying to be as reassuring as possible.

He returned the squeeze, just a little, and took a steadying breath before he relayed what he'd just been told.

"So far this morning, four children have been discovered lying in various alleys around the city. They were all in the same state. Alive, but unconscious, with no visible signs of injury."

- - -

By the time the remaining duelists in the competition began to arrive at the park, no further news had come of the unconscious children and the feeling of encroaching doom that had been lingering in the air had settled into a slightly ominous foreboding. From the quiet way that Rex, Weevil, Espa and Mai joined the others, it was clear that it was just strong enough for them to feel it too.

Joey didn't waste time with greetings. As soon as Mai got within earshot, he blurted out, "Hey Mai, have you been sleeping well?"

Mai arched an eyebrow and looked surprised at the question, but gave him a straight answer without hesitation. "Not really. I've been pretty restless for the past couple of nights. It's odd, I normally sleep well in strange beds." She paused for a heartbeat, then added, "I'm used to hotels, before anyone gets any weird thoughts about that."

Joey grinned at her. "Who? Me?"

Mai grinned back at him. "You and the guy behind you who started smirking as soon as I said it."

Bakura snickered. "Hey, if you don't want me to comment, don't give me openings like that."

"I'll keep that in mind." Mai's smile faded to a serious look as she moved in closer to Joey to speak to him more privately.

"Is it just me, or is there something going on? I haven't felt tension like this since the blimp stage of Battle City." She frowned and obviously wasn't happy at the similarity.

"Yeah, something's up. We don't know what, though." Joey's quiet confirmation said more about the seriousness of the situation than his actual words.

Mai sighed. "Great. I was hoping this would be a quiet tournament."

"Well, it has been so far." Joey shrugged. "Maybe it's not connected to this. Hey, it could happen!"

Mai continued giving him her best 'yeah right' look.

Bakura apparently decided that he'd been ignored long enough and leaned over to get Mai's attention. "So, Mai, where's that roommate of yours?" He gestured to the other three girls, who had arrived while Joey and Mai had been talking. "She's the only one not here. More mail?"

"Not this time." Mai looked a little worried. "She slept in. I don't remember her ever doing that before. Usually she's up before me and so cheerful that I want to strangle her at least twice before I have my morning coffee. But today... I actually got the bathroom first. She got out of the shower just before I came down. Since I was ready, she told me to come on ahead." She smiled a little. "I'm to try and distract the officials if she's not here by the time they're ready to start."

Joey and Bakura both snickered at that. "Well, if anyone can do that, it would be you, Mai." Joey grinned at her.

"Why, thank you." Mai took it as the compliment it was and grinned back.

"Uh oh." Joey looked over as the message for the contestants to gather came over the loudspeaker. "Looks like you're about to get your chance, too."

Mai nodded and looked around as they began walking towards the officials. She glanced at Bakura, who was walking just behind her and Joey. "I thought you said it was just Nyc missing."

Bakura shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Of the ones who matter. If that guy misses the start, you won't catch me sympathising with him."

"You have a point there." Mai winced. "Did you see his duel on the show last night?"

"Yeah." Bakura's eyes darkened. "If you go up against him in the last stage... watch your back."

His soft tone caused Mai to arch an eyebrow. "Thanks for the warning. But what makes you so sure he'll be there? He's nowhere near the top eight."

Bakura shrugged. "Neither's Joey, but we both know that will change today."

Mai smiled and nodded. "Of course." She looked at Joey and grinned. "Aww, he's blushing."

Bakura snickered as Joey's blush deepened. "Mai! I am not! Oh look, there's Nyc!"

Mai joined in with Bakura's laughter at Joey's obvious attempt at distraction. She smiled and waved to the girl, who had just managed to weave her way through the crowd and was waiting for them with the announcers. Nyc waved back, looking sheepish.

"I made it."

"Barely, Hon." Mai grinned at her friend. "But even so, you're not the last one to turn up." She didn't gesture towards the lanky figure working his way through the crowd behind Nyc, but it was clear from Nyc's reaction that she didn't have to.

"So that's what's been making my skin crawl. I thought I had a stalker, for a few minutes." Nyc spoke lightly but her whole body had tensed up.

Evien gave a broad smile that didn't reach his eyes as he emerged from the crowd and headed for the group, making a beeline for Joey. He'd just opened his mouth to speak when the loudspeaker crackled loudly, heralding the official's announcement of the day's start to the tournament.

As the official droned on with the same speech he'd given the day before and the contestants either listened to him politely or tuned him out entirely, their minds already on the game ahead, Evien leaned as close to Joey as he could. He spoke just loudly enough for the blonde to hear him. "Sorry to hear how badly you're doing in the tournament. It must be a shock, going from the top eight of Battle City to last place here."

A slight narrowing of Joey's eyes was the only sign of how annoyed he was. His reply came in his usual cheerful voice. "Not really. It doesn't matter what place I get. I'm just enjoying the duels."

Evien's chuckle was obviously forced. "Oh, of course you are. Nothing else you can do, right?"

Joey was saved from having to reply politely to that borderline insult by the official announcing the start of the day's tournament. He smirked as Evien immediately hurried off. "Looks like I'm not the one who's worried about where I'm placing at the moment," he muttered to himself.

Then it was off for another day of duels. The game was on again!

To be continued...


	7. Chapter 6: A Dangerous Game

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 6: A Dangerous Game**  
by Shadow's Mirror

The third day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament had just begun, but already it was quite different from the two days before it. The dark clouds that had gathered during the night still hung low in the sky and a feeling of tension was in the air, although no longer as heavy as it had been earlier that morning.

As the duelists started off to find their first duels for the day, there was far less excitement in their faces than there had been on the previous days of the competition. Most of them were not very good at hiding how worried they were about what the day might bring.

There was no sign of worry from Evien when he sauntered up to his duel, barely twenty minutes later, though. He looked calm and ready to battle, but the light sheen of sweat on his face gave away the truth. He'd run every step of the way there, desperate to be one of the first to get to, and win, his first duel of the day.

And it would have to be his first, if he was to have any hope at all of getting into the top eight and going through to the final round of the tournament. He was only on his third duel and there were already five others up to their fourth duels. With only five duels before the final round, he was quickly running out of time. He had to make every minute count.

- - -

Evien was the first duelist to find and begin his duel that day, but many of the others weren't far behind him. Isis began her level four duel only a few minutes later, with both Nyc and Avril starting their duels a few minutes behind her. Another ten minutes saw level three duels starting for Malik and Marik, who were both oddly focused considering how laid back they had been in the contest on the previous days. But the audience watching the tournament via the live coverage on TV didn't get to see much of them, as Seto began his level four duel at the same time.

Of course, as he won it in under ten minutes with a punishing attack from his dragons, there would have still been plenty of time to have seen Malik and Marik in action, but Callie had started her level four duel in the meantime and the camera seemed to find her more interesting to focus on.

Or maybe it was just that showing Malik and Marik when they were dueling seriously would have required the TV station to up the show's rating to a PG13, for scary stuff.

Seto was the first duelist to win that day, but not by much. Barely ten minutes later, both Nyc and Avril easily won their duels with some superb combo attacks that were the talk of the city for the rest of that morning.

At the same time, Reena and Bakura both began their level four duels, while Rex practically pounced on the poor official waiting for him and claimed loudly that he'd win this duel in under ten minutes and 'show that Seto Kaiba how a real duelist does it!'

By comparison, Joey's cheerful smile and happy 'Oh, hey there! Good luck in the duel!' at around the same time made a far better impression on both the officials and the audience. On the cameraman too, apparently, as it was Joey's duel that got the most coverage.

Although, he did cover the part where the official soundly defeated Rex, twenty minutes later. Quite a feat considering that Yugi's duel had started a few minutes earlier, while Reena was about to win her duel. Still, the live coverage managed to capture all of the major plays quite nicely.

Weevil and Espa had both needed to travel quite a distance to get to their first duels, but they managed it at around the same time as Callie won her duel, a minute or two before Evien.

Evien clearly wasn't happy with his win. Despite pulling off a range of combo attacks and using more traps and magic cards than most duelists would have had in their decks, his opponent had been quite good and whittling his lifepoints down had apparently taken a lot longer than Evien liked. Even so, he pasted a smile on his face and flattered the official a little afterwards, before asking him how he was placing in the tournament and how the others were doing.

When he left the duel location a few minutes later, Evien was no longer smiling.

At about the same time that Evien was learning that he was still coming in eleventh place, Isis, Malik, Marik and Joey all won their duels. Each of them did so in a different way, but all four had the same effect on both the officials and the audience of the live coverage.

The officials were impressed.

The audience was stunned.

Isis had been playing calmly and quietly through the whole tournament, but her calmness had never been more obvious than during that duel. Her opponent had been showering her with attacks and taking out her lifepoints in massive amounts each round for several rounds, but she had not so much as flinched. She had merely bided her time until she drew the cards she needed and had then proceeded to systematically destroy all of his monsters on the field and wipe out his lifepoints.

Malik and Marik had had far too much fun with their officials, but they'd also taught them some new strategies, judging by the fact that both men went shopping for Gravekeeper's Assassin cards after their shifts were done for the day.

As for Joey's duel... it was the most incredible example of a streak of pure luck that anyone in the city had ever seen. From his opening move to his final Time Wizard and Baby Dragon combo, everything he'd done had gone Joey's way. Most of his cards had been influenced by Fate, their effects either requiring the toss of a coin, the roll of a die or simple guesswork on his part, but he'd succeeded every time. If it hadn't been impossible to cheat with such things, he would have had his win challenged. Surely no one was that lucky? The official was still shaking her head in mute astonishment as she handed over his winning card and the clue for the next duel.

A few minutes after Joey's win, the last duelist finally made it to her duel.

Mai was clearly upset, although it turned out that her emotions were due to the fact that she'd missed out on something she'd wanted in a sale she'd stopped by at on the way to her duel and not because she was making a late start in the day's dueling. She took a moment to take a few deep breaths to calm down and then focused on her duel, clearly intending to make up for lost time.

For the first ten minutes, she shared the live coverage fairly evenly with Yugi. Then he won his duel and the audience was treated to a whole half hour of mostly Mai Valentine, despite the fact that quite a few of the other duelists were also dueling at that time.

- - -

Although the skies were still dark with storm clouds and the air was still heavy with the feeling that something was about to happen, the day had gone fairly smoothly for most of the duelists. Of the sixteen of them, only Rex and Weevil had been defeated so far and they were both looking quite good in their second attempts at passing their checkpoints. Some of the duelists had begun to relax a little, but when the officials' bags began to make beeping sounds, shortly before eleven thirty, those who were dueling at the time all had a sudden feeling of foreboding.

They were right to be worried.

So as not to distract either the duelists or the officials from the duels, important news was sent to the officials' portable data pads, rather than their cellphones. The arrival of such a bulletin set off the beeping alarm, alerting the officials to the fact that there was information available that the duelist might need to be told after the match was over.

Bakura was the first to win his match, a few minutes after the alarm sounded, so he was the first to learn what had happened.

Three of the tournament's duelists, Avril Kensington, Rina Price and Callie Logan, had been taken to hospital. They'd been discovered by another duelist, lying unconscious in an alley.

As Seto had told the group who had gathered that morning, his security team had learned of four children being found earlier that morning, also lying unconscious in alleys around the city.

It could just be a coincidence, of course.

Bakura hadn't lived as long as he had by believing in coincidences.

As he walked away from the dueling area, he slipped Ryou's cellphone out of his pocket and hit one of the speeddials. "Yugi? It's Bakura. Put Yami on, would you? This game just became dangerous."

- - -

As the other duelists won their matches, the officials told them the news.

Mai was the next to learn and it hit her hard. She knew the girls and liked them. On the other hand, there was nothing she could do to help them and she was right in the middle of a tournament. She needed to focus on it. There was a prize at stake.

She frowned at the clue she'd received and then sighed. Putting it in her bag, she went off to hit the shops. Even if it didn't help them, visiting them with get well soon gifts that afternoon would have two benefits. It would make her feel like she wasn't completely useless and shopping for the gifts would relax her again enough to focus on solving the clue and finding her next, and last, duel. She was in the top group. Mai knew she could afford to take some time out for herself and her friends.

Espa was so shocked at the news that he had to ask the official to repeat it. The second time, he bit his lip hard and started to leave before receiving his prize card and the clue for the next duel. The official had to run after him with them. Clearly distracted and distressed, Espa looked as if he wasn't sure what to do next. The official kindly asked him if he was all right and he shook his head.

"I... I think... Would it be all right if I went back to my hotel for a little while? I... I really need to see my brothers right now. To make sure they're all safe." He was near tears.

The official nodded and offered to have someone drive him there. Espa sniffed and accepted.

The green-haired duelist wasn't seen again for the rest of the day.

Rex also took the news hard, but his reaction was the opposite of Mai and Espa's. He gruffly said that the competition wouldn't be as good with three of the best no longer in it, then stomped off to find his next duel, muttering that he'd win it for them.

Weevil lost twice to his opponent, but finally managed to beat him on his third try. His smug smile lasted only as long as it took for the official to hand him his card and clue and tell him that Rex had won his duel twenty minutes earlier. But when he heard the news about the girls, his pout turned into a heavy scowl. "Why is it that strange things always happen during these big tournaments? It's getting so a duelist can't even duel in peace."

The clocks in the city were chiming noon when Nyc stepped up to the dueling arena for her fifth, and final, match of the tournament. One look at the waiting official and she seemed to know that something had happened, asking that she be told before the duel when the official wanted to wait until afterwards. Despite the official warning her that it would possibly distract her off her game, Nyc quietly insisted that she would take that chance.

When she heard the news about her friends, she bowed her head. For a few moments, she was still and silent, then she lifted her head again. The official took an involuntary step back at the intensity of the anger in Nyc's eyes. "It seems... that this tournament... has just become personal." Nyc spoke very softly, just to herself, then looked at the official and summoned the ghost of a smile.

"Let's duel."

Despite the fact that Seto Kaiba's second duel started, and ended, during the half hour that Nyc's duel went for, he barely got more than a minute of screen time in the live coverage. There was something about Nyc's duel that was almost spellbinding to watch and it apparently entranced the people editing the camera footage as much as it did the show's audience.

She didn't use rare cards, or complicated strategies. There was nothing in her duel to suggest that Nyc was anything but a duelist used to dueling at a middle level of competition. Even so... through the whole duel, her hand never once wavered over her choice of card. Her eyes never once left the dueling arena and the monsters gathered there. Her focus was completely on the duel.

When it was won, the official smiled a little as he handed her the prize card and final clue. "Congratulations. You just need to go to the final location and you're through to the finals."

Nyc nodded and smiled a little, although her eyes were slowly filling with tears. "Thank you. I am not just in this for myself, now. I am fighting for them, also." She spoke so softly that the microphones for the live coverage didn't pick up a word of it, but the official heard and understood.

He nodded and looked sympathetic. "Once you get there and sign in, you're done for the day. You can wait and see who else turns up, of course, but you're also free to go off and do... other things."

This time, Nyc's smile was a little brighter. "Thank you. I may just do that."

Half an hour later, just as Yugi was beginning his fifth duel on the other side of the city, Nyc stepped into the foyer of the auditorium where the finals were to be held.

The contest official who was waiting there smiled broadly at her. "Congratulations. If you would just sign the register..."

One signature later, Nyc was officially the first of the eight finalists of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament.

That left just seven more places for the finals and twelve eager duelists to fill them.

A challenge had been issued and Nyc had accepted. Now, it was just a question of who else would join her.

To be continued...


	8. Chapter 7: Questions and Answers

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 7: Questions and Answers**  
by Shadow's Mirror

It was one o'clock on the third day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament and the first duelist had just made it to the place where the last stage of the competition was to be held.

The cameras were in the lobby of the auditorium, eagerly recording the moment when Nyc signed in to officially claim her place in the finals.

Of the thirteen duelists still in the competition, only the first eight to make it to that location would go on to duel each other to decide the tournament's ultimate champion.

Once the duelists made it to that point, they could do whatever they wanted until the morning of the fifth day of the competition, when the finals would begin. Nyc apparently had quite a few things that she wanted to do, judging by how quickly she slipped out of the auditorium after the signing.

- - -

If the fans watching the live coverage of the tournament on TV expected Nyc's claiming of the first spot in the finals to be followed by anything very interesting, they were doomed to disappointment.

Unless 'very interesting' was defined as 'an hour of Yugi alternating between getting his game on and getting his backside handed to him on a platter', of course.

Eventually though, Yugi did his usual 'draw exactly the card needed to win' thing and the duel was over with him still on 30 lifepoints.

Hardly exciting, really.

But more exciting than the half hour of the live coverage show that followed.

With no one left dueling, the show's director decided to fill in some time with a montage of the duelists searching for their next matches.

Unfortunately for the director, his camera crews were only able to track down six of the remaining duelists to film for it.

First off, Isis and her two brothers, along with a tall, bald man with an ornate tattoo over one side of his face, were shown finishing off a very leisurely late lunch at a small street café. They were up to the dessert course, with Malik and Marik sharing an extra large chocolate and banana ice-cream sundae with two straws in it, while Isis was delicately eating a triple layer double fudge vanilla nut slice with extra cream and strawberries. The tattooed man was sipping a raspberry parfait.

Next was Weevil, who wasn't on the screen for long as he was rather busy at the time of filming. He didn't smile for the camera, but he did scream out 'don't just film me you idiots, help me!' to the camera crew as he ran past, a particularly large pink poodle yapping at his heels.

When Rex came on the screen, he was looking rather bewildered in the middle of Domino City's main park, in the centre of town. He had a street map and was turning it every possible way, clearly lost. The camera stayed on him only for as long as it took Rex to notice them and trot over. The last thing recorded for his part of the montage was "Hey, do you guys know where this place is? I can't seem to find it on the map."

Which just left one more duelist to provide some entertainment for the rapidly declining audience.

Cut to Mai.

Oddly, the twenty-five minute coverage of Mai shopping caused the audience numbers to not only return to what they had been at the end of Yugi's duel, but to double.

The shopping centre also reported a swell in sales figures later that afternoon, when a large number of females descended on the place in a mad rush to grab the bargains that Mai had shown them how and where to find.

- - -

Fortunately for credit cards all over Domino City, Bakura and Evien both located their next duels within minutes of each other, putting an end to 'Mai's Shopping Spree Show'.

For Bakura, it was his last qualifying duel for the finals, so he was taking this one a little more seriously than he had all the others.

He barely toyed with his opponent before beginning to steadily chip away at the man's lifepoints with a series of simple, but effective, plays.

But despite both duels starting at the same time, and Bakura's being a fifth level match while Evien's was only a fourth, it was Evien's duel that got most of the live coverage for the half hour that both battles lasted for.

Normally, Evien was all smug smiles and arrogant attitude before and after a duel. He usually started off a duel in the same way, but became more serious as his opponent took away more of his lifepoints. But this time... Evien was serious even as he stepped up to the dueling area.

From the first round, Evien's attacks against his opponent were brutal and merciless. The first monster he summoned became a tribute for a more powerful one, and then he hammered the man round after round. Only the official's quick thinking and strong defense line-up saved him from losing the match within a few turns.

He managed to get one of his stronger monsters onto the field and took out Evien's, only to have Evien play a trap card. It destroyed the official's monster and took a chunk of his lifepoints with it!

Evien's smile as he summoned another powerful monster and activated a magic card that enabled him to summon another one as well in that same turn, was barely noticeable by his opponent, but the sharper eyed among the audience watching the duel on the live coverage shuddered at how cold and cruel the smile was.

It was the smile of someone who was taking his opponent down... and enjoying every minute of it.

When Evien finally reduced his victim's lifepoints to zero, his smug smile returned.

When he read the clue that would lead him to his last duel, his smile widened even further.

He hurried off without even bothering to ask the official how everyone else was going.

If he had asked, he'd have learned that Weevil had just started his fourth level duel, while Bakura had just won his match and was on his way to the location for the last stage of the tournament.

He'd have also learned that while Nyc had already claimed the first spot in the finals, Seto Kaiba had just claimed the second.

- - -

Yugi stepped into the auditorium's foyer ten minutes after Kaiba. Surprisingly, the brunette was still there, talking with one of the officials off to one side of the room and frowning heavily.

The diminutive duelist signed the registration book under the two names already there, claiming the third spot in the finals, then crossed to where Kaiba was now standing alone, still frowning.

"Seto? Is something wrong? You look troubled." He looked knowingly at his friend and rival. "Is it because Nyc was the first to get here? I know you don't like her much." There were a few officials moving around so he was careful to keep his voice down.

Kaiba shook his head slightly. When he spoke, his tone matched Yugi's. "My personal feelings for her have nothing to do with it. As it happens, the past few days have made me... reconsider... my initial opposition to her and the others being a part of this tournament." He looked as if he'd have rather undergone a month of nightly dinners with Pegasus while wearing a dress, complete with violin serenades and goodnight kisses, than admit that much.

Yugi smiled very sweetly. "You saw their duels on the recap shows."

A soft sigh escaped Kaiba and he nodded very slightly, just once. "Even if I had not, I did some checking on the four of them. What I learned from that..." He scowled. "I cannot deny that they have earned the right to be here." He looked at Yugi and his voice lowered further, despite there being no one close enough to overhear. "Which is why I cannot ignore what happened today."

A very sad look crossed Yugi's face as he nodded. "I know. Bakura called Yami about it, earlier. They're both really worried." He looked at Kaiba. "Have you found out anything else about it?"

"No." The brunette teen frowned. "Only that their situation is not quite the same as that of the four children who were found earlier this morning."

At Yugi's startled look, Kaiba nodded. "When I heard the description of how and where the girls were found, I jumped to the same conclusion as you and... the others..." He managed to say it with only a small wrinkle of his nose. "...likely did. The four children were outwardly uninjured, but unconscious. They have not awoken and they are not responding to any sort of stimulus. The doctors are saying they are in comas. On the other hand, the three duelists were all physically injured." He ignored Yugi's horrified gasp and kept speaking. "My security chief informed me that it looks as if all three of them were forcefully thrown against the alley wall. Their lack of consciousness is due to their injuries. They are expected to awaken sometime tomorrow."

He and Yugi traded knowing looks, but it was Yugi who put their shared thought into whispered words. "So they were put out of action for just long enough to make them lose any chance they had of making the tournament finals."

Kaiba scowled, obviously thinking the same thing and not liking the thought at all. "I suppose I do not need to tell you to be on your guard." He glanced at Yugi.

"He's ready for anything." Yugi quietly confirmed. He didn't clarify who 'he' was, but the irritated look that Kaiba gave him made it clear that he knew exactly who Yugi meant. "It's the others I'm worried about."

Kaiba spoke very softly. "I have already made arrangements to have one of Kaiba Corp.'s security teams assigned to the tournament tomorrow, however I have also made the suggestion that the live television coverage be expanded to include keeping a camera crew with all of the duelists. To record their emotions as they realise that they will either make it into the finals or not."

A slight smile curved just the corners of the brunette teen's lips. "The director personally agreed. He believes it will make for a 'more dramatic' show."

- - -

The live coverage show had another twenty minutes to kill between Yugi's addition to the finalists and Rex beginning his fourth duel, but this time the director had something ready. As well as showing a few of the more amusing parts of Weevil's ongoing attempt to pass the fourth duel level, the audience was treated to an interesting montage of some of the best plays of the day.

It wasn't quite as interesting as the duel that followed, however. Rex played his fourth match more cautiously than he had dueled so far in the tournament. That caution resulted in some rather good combo attacks and several dinosaurs being seen for the first time in any of his battles, as he finally managed to get some of his strongest monsters onto the field.

Apparently, he had been serious about this duel being not just for himself, but also for the three girls who had been knocked out of the tournament. He had never played better.

The audience watching the live coverage show was treated to a whole half hour of Rex dueling, except for a few minutes when Weevil lost his second attempt at getting through level four. After that half hour, the scene cut to the auditorium to show Bakura signing in as the fourth finalist. That in turn was followed in quick succession by Isis beginning her fifth duel and both Marik and Malik starting their level four matches.

Within a minute of that, the live coverage focused solely on the 'twins' and their incredible duels.

Less than twenty minutes later, Weevil's win of his third attempt at level four was completely overshadowed by Marik's stunning single-turn decimation of over half of his opponent's lifepoints, which won him the match.

Malik's win a few minutes later was rather less impressive, as he had been content to simply take out a little of his opponent's lifepoints with every round, but it was still just as decisive a win.

The car that screeched to a stop in front of where Malik had been dueling was the same car that had driven away from Marik's duel with a similar screech. Marik poked his head out of the rear passenger window and waved cheerfully. "Brother Malik! We have to hurry. Sister Isis will be finishing her duel soon."

Marik was right. Isis won her level five duel barely ten minutes later, just as the car screeched to a stop in front of the carpark where her match was being held.

As she smiled and thanked the official for a wonderful game, her brothers jumped out of the car and ran to hug her.

Malik beamed brightly at her. "Isis! Odion went over the speed limit four times! I think he should be punished for being naughty but Marik says our handcuffs are still on the penguin."

Marik nodded. "I like oranges, Sister Isis." He pouted at her.

Isis seemed to be able to follow the conversation perfectly well as she nodded and gently patted their heads. "Malik, I will scold Odion severely for breaking the speed limit and I will call the zoo first thing tomorrow and ask them to kindly return your handcuffs. Marik, we will stop at the store on the way home and get some oranges to have for dessert tonight."

With both boys satisfied and happy, and Odion unknowingly driving himself into an even longer lecture on road safety later that night, the little family headed off with yet another squeal of tires.

At the same time, Joey arrived at the location of his fourth duel.

The official nodded to him in greeting, then frowned as she noticed how quiet and sad he was. "Um... are you ready to start?"

"Yeah." Joey nodded and managed a small smile. "Sorry. I was just... thinking about some stuff." He smiled a little more brightly. "Let's duel."

The live coverage didn't show the start of Joey's duel, as it coincided with the last few rounds of Rex's duel and the director believed the end of a duel was usually more interesting to watch than the opening moves.

Rex's duel certainly ended quite impressively, as his most powerful dinosaur squished one final opposing monster and took out the last of the official's lifepoints.

But when the coverage switched to Joey's duel, the audience was left baffled as to how he had managed to get four monsters on the field and two magic cards in play, in only five minutes.

They were left even more baffled fifteen minutes later, when Joey used Monster Reborn to summon Mystic Horseman, a monster that he had apparently summoned and sacrificed at some point during those initial turns of his duel.

Fusing Mystic Horseman with the Battle Ox that he had waiting resulted in the appearance on the field of Rabid Horseman, which had just enough attack strength to defeat the monster that Joey's opponent had been using against him.

One attack each from the other three monsters on Joey's side of the field and the match was his.

As Joey went to congratulate the official on a great game and get his prize card and the clue to the location of his last duel before the finals, the third day of the tournament officially ended.

- - -

Shortly after dinner that night, Yugi and Yami were sitting on Yugi's bed. Yami was in his physical form and they were sorting through the cards that they'd received through the tournament as prizes, debating if any of them would work better than the cards already in their duel deck.

The opening of a shadow portal barely four feet away from them had Yugi gasping in surprise, but Yami merely arched an eyebrow and scowled heavily. When Bakura stepped through the gateway into the room, he growled at him. "You might have called first. You startled Yugi." Then his scowl deepened into a frown. "You look terrible."

"Gee... thanks. Just what I needed to hear right now." Bakura groaned as he flopped inelegantly down onto the floor while the portal vanished. .

"Bakura!" Yugi blinked in surprise and then slipped off the bed. "I will get you a drink of water or... something." He eyed the yami worriedly as he headed for the door.

Bakura smiled faintly. "Water would be great. Thanks."

As soon as the Light was gone, the white-haired yami looked seriously at the former Pharaoh. "Have you noticed how hard it is to control the Shadow Magic right now? I only used it to make two portals and do a bit of skulking in some shadows and it's pretty much exhausted me." He scowled. "Whatever is going on with it... it's definitely getting worse."

Yami nodded, frowning slightly. "I had noticed that, yes. I have tried asking the cards about it, however..." His frown deepened.

"Let me guess. All you got was vagueness and evasion. Me too." Bakura sighed. "Guess we're going to have to get more insistent, if we want any real answers."

"Indeed. Let us leave it for tonight, however. I doubt that you came here solely to speak of that."

Bakura smiled a little. "You're right. That's not why I came. It was just something I felt the need to rant about by the time I got here."

He looked up as Yugi returned with a tray of glasses and his smile brightened into a genuinely happy grin. "Yugi, I honestly never thought I'd be so happy to see you. Ever. Thanks."

As they all sipped their water, Bakura got down to business.

"I've just come from the hospital."

Yugi bit his lip. "Avril, Rina and Callie are...?"

"Fine. Still unconscious, but that won't be for much longer." Bakura sipped his water as Yugi smiled happily. "Wish I could say the same for those kids."

Yugi's smile faded as he nodded. Yami frowned. "Kaiba told us as much. Did you learn anything?"

"I got a few answers. There's just one little problem." Bakura sighed.

"Which is?" Yami arched an eyebrow and sipped his own glass of water as he waited.

Bakura scowled. "Every answer I got tonight leads to at least two more questions."

To be continued...


	9. Chapter 8: Sharing Information

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My humblest apologies for not updating this story in so long. Real life went crazy on both myself and my beta reader. To make up for it, here's a little status update on the progress of this story: This update contains chapters 9-10 and I've already started work on chapter 11. I also have the remainder of this whole story roughly planned out. So it's getting there, I just need time to work on it. For those who are still reading after all this time, I thank you for your patience and hope you continue to enjoy it.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 8: Sharing Information**  
By Shadow's Mirror

Yami frowned slightly as he studied Bakura. The other dark spirit was sipping his glass of water slowly and looked far more tired than he should have looked. That wasn't surprising, though. For a few weeks, the Shadow Magic had been getting progressively harder to control. Just making a simple shadow portal now took the same effort as playing an intense shadow game.

What was surprising was what Bakura had just told Yami and Yugi.

"If, as you say, every answer you found led you to two more questions" He paused and his gaze was suddenly very intent. "That means you actually found some answers."

Bakura nodded. "A few. Not many, but more than I expected." He sipped his water again and then slowly lowered the glass, a troubled look on his face. "It was easier than I thought it would be." He lifted his eyes to look at the other two boys.

Yugi spoke softly. "Tell us. Perhaps something you found out will help to make some sense of all this."

"I doubt it but worth a shot." Bakura frowned as he thought for a moment. "I guess I'll start with the girls. All three of them were injured, but not badly. Enough to knock them out for the night, and out of the running for the final round of the contest, too. I overhead a doctor speaking with a cop about it. It seems they're working under the assumption that the girls were walking through the alley where they were found when someone jumped them and pushed them into the wall. All three were knocked out by the impact. It's a good theory, but it has a few practicality issues."

Yami scowled as he nodded. "Like how one person would have been able to push three people into a wall at once. It must have been done that way or else the two not being pushed would surely have run for help."

"Or jumped in to help their friend. Those three are close. I can see them leaping to each other's defence. Literally. No, I don't think one person could have done it. That leaves two possibilities. Either it was more than one person, or" He tailed off, frowning.

"Or it was not a person who did that to them." Yami softly completed Bakura's sentence.

Yugi gasped. "You don't mean? A Shadow Monster? But how? Who? I mean Surely we would have known if one had been summoned for that." He looked shocked.

"I would have said that too. In fact, my first instinct was to discount the Monster idea entirely." Bakura's frown deepened. "But it makes a bit too much sense. A group would have been noticed. Someone would have seen or heard something. One person could just slip in, get the deed done and then slip away again. I know that better than anyone." He didn't look proud of that fact. Much. "On the other hand, there's the little matter of ability."

Yami nodded. "To control a Monster capable of doing this would require considerable Shadow Magic. More than Joey, Kaiba or anyone without a Millennium Item has. There are seven Items and five bearers, not counting you, Marik or myself. With us, that makes eight possible culprits."

"Six bearers." Bakura looked a little sheepish. "I returned the Eye to Pegasus a while back."

He winced slightly as Yami arched an eyebrow in silent query. "Even though it was never really meant to be his, he did have the ability to use it and I learned from Dark Witch that it was because of the Eye that he was able to make the Duel Monster cards in the first place. I figured it could be useful for him to keep that power. Besides Ryou hated that thing. Having it in the house was giving him nightmares. So that makes nine of us in all."

"This isn't really Pegasus's way of doing things, though. Also I don't think he's actually able to summon the Monsters into the world, is he?" Yugi looked from Yami to Bakura and back again. "I don't think Isis can do that, either."

Bakura thoughtfully nodded. "Now there's a point. I've never seen either of them do it, no. Doesn't mean they can't, but that aside, it doesn't fit with either of them, anyway. Of the others it also doesn't fit with Ryou or you, Yugi. I can't see Malik doing it, either. Marik" He paused for a moment to consider that further. "No. Not deliberately, at least."

"On that, we are agreed. He has changed considerably since his time in the Void." Yami frowned slightly. "However, I would not discount Marik entirely, at this point. He does not always consider the consequences of his actions."

"Yeah. But that said if he had done it, even by accident, he'd have already admitted it. He'd also have called for help for them." Bakura's voice was very soft. "The doctor told that cop they'd been there for at least half an hour before they were spotted by a passer-by."

"It seems that we are disqualifying everyone except for the two of us and" Yami trailed off, a very thoughtful look on his face. Whatever he was thinking, it didn't seem to be very pleasant.

"I don't act without good reason and those girls did nothing to either me or Ryou. I didn't do it and I don't believe you would. That just leaves Shadi. The one person we haven't seen hide nor hair of through all this and also the one we know the least about." Bakura scowled heavily, then arched an eyebrow at Yugi. "Why are you shaking your head?"

Yugi blushed a little. "Because I know it's not him. Isis told me a few weeks ago that Shadi is currently in Egypt, working as a translator for some archaeologists connected to the museum. He isn't due to finish that for some months yet." He looked worried. "But that puts us right back where we started. With no idea about who or what we're dealing with."

"Perhaps not." Yami looked troubled. Very troubled.

Bakura nodded and frowned. "There is one other possibility. It could always be a rogue Shadow Monster. One acting on his own. I know some of them have the power to get to our world without being summoned. Dark Witch has done it a few times. But why target those three girls? That doesn't add up."

"Agreed. This has all the markings of being planned by someone for a specific reason." Yami did not look like a happy former-Pharaoh. "Which leaves us with just one solution to the mystery."

Yugi looked even more worried but it was Bakura who groaned out loud. "Please don't say that it could be someone teamed up with a rogue Shadow Monster. That's well yeah it's possible to do it, sure. But then it would be impossible to narrow down the suspects! It could be anyone!"

The faintest ghost of a smile flickered across Yami's face as he nodded. "I know. However that is the only remaining possibility."

"I told you not to say that." Bakura scowled at Yami and had another sip of his water.

Yugi bit his lip and spoke very softly and with considerable hesitation. "What about the Shadow Magic itself?"

"Huh?" Bakura's reply was rather more inelegant than Yami's.

"What do you mean, Aibou?" Yami looked curious.

Yugi blushed a little at the term and looked at his dark half as he replied. "The Shadow Magic has been strange lately. Difficult to use. You and Bakura have both said so. Things in the Shadow Realm have been strange, too, right? Could that have any connection to what's happening here?"

Yami and Bakura looked at each other before they both looked at Yugi and nodded.

"It could." Bakura spoke quietly. "There's a strong link between the two worlds. But if that's the case then it would mean that whatever's happening here isn't a new situation. It's been building up until it's finally at the point where it's noticeable. Just like how things have been gradually worsening in the Shadow Realm over the past" He thought for a moment. "I'd say a few months."

"I would have to agree. If not longer." Yami looked at Bakura. "It would explain why the Shadow Monsters seem to not perceive it as a new threat."

Bakura nodded. "They definitely know more about it then they're saying. It wasn't an issue before but now" He scowled. "Maybe it's time to ask a few direct questions there."

"Possibly." Yami smiled a little. "But perhaps first you should continue to tell us what you learned tonight? We got a little sidetracked."

"Oh. Right." Bakura looked thoughtful. "Although, it might have been a good thing we did. Yugi's got a point. The Shadow Magic seems to be the only connection between the girls and the other kids found unconscious in the city." He glanced at Yugi before settling his gaze steadily on Yami. "Because whatever happened to them It was definitely Shadow Magic that did it."

Yami's eyes narrowed at the serious tone in Bakura's voice. "You are sure?"

Bakura nods. "Yeah. But I'd been thinking it wasn't one of us who'd done it, too. No" He held up a hand before Yami could interrupt. "That's not quite right. Better to say that, as far as I know, none of the Millennium Items have the power to do what was done to those kids."

"Which was?" Yami was frowning slightly.

It took Bakura a few moments to answer, as if he was making sure that he worded his reply so that it made sense. Or perhaps he was just thinking through the problem before voicing his thoughts. "Their bodies are fine, but they'll never wake up. Their souls have been taken. Not trapped, like what was done to" He glanced at Yugi, who had gone pale at the reminder of what Pegasus had once done to his Grandpa, then back at Yami. His voice was very soft when he spoke again.

"It's more than being soulless. A soulless body can still move and function. The soulroom carries a sort of echo of the soul that dwells within it. When a soul is trapped, or lost, that echo is left behind and it's just enough to keep things together. At least for a while. This is different. It's not just that there's no echo. There's not even a trace that there was ever a soul inside any of those kids' bodies. None of them have a soulroom."

* * *

A long moment of silence passed, in which Yugi and Yami could do nothing more than just stare at Bakura with twin looks of shock and horror dawning on their faces.

Another moment passed as Yugi made an odd squeaking sound and Yami instinctively put his hand on his shoulder in an attempt to reassure his Light. Yugi barely leaned into it, too horrified at what he'd just heard to really notice the touch.

A third moment passed as Yami took a deep breath to steady himself before fixing Bakura with a steady gaze that was pure Pharaoh. If the look alone wasn't enough to command Bakura's attention and immediate response, his voice when he spoke was.

"Explain."

It was a sign of how shocked Bakura himself was that he didn't react at all negatively to the commanding tone in Yami's voice. He just shrugged. "I wish I could."

He ran a hand distractedly through his hair, his frown deepening into a glare of pure frustration. "I've never seen this before. I didn't even know it was possible."

Yami frowned and eased his instinctive commanding tone back a fraction. "It is not the same as what you do. I am not incorrect in thinking that?"

"No." Bakura's reply was immediate and accompanied by a slight shake of his head. "Pegasus too." He sighed deeply and looked like he really didn't want to explain more, but knew that he had no choice in the matter.

"There are four parts to a person's essence. To put it as simply as I can The core of a person's consciousness and being is their actual soul. The echo of it is the instincts the person has, the things they can do without being entirely conscious, or aware of doing them. The soulroom is where the soul resides inside the body, but it's more than that. It's where a soul is safe. A place of retreat where it can block anything else out. Where it finds peace. A sanctuary but also protection. If the soul is a core, then the soulroom is the outer shell."

Bakura looked at the other two boys, clearly not at all happy. "Pegasus can steal a soul, but only if he can get to it. If they're caught off-guard or don't know they need to be wary of him or his power. Otherwise, their knowledge locks him out of their soulroom. I can steal both the soul and the echo, to seal them inside something else and I can do it even if they know I can. Think of it as me having the ability to pick the soulroom door's lock and slip inside." He glanced sharply at Yami as if expecting him to have some comment to make on the thief analogy, but the former-Pharaoh merely nodded once in a silent gesture for him to continue.

"This I'll admit it. This goes far beyond what I can do. No, more than that. It goes beyond what I thought was even possible to do. Whoever, or whatever, is doing this They're not only taking the soul itself but the whole soulroom. Which makes them impossible to find." Bakura almost growled the last bit out.

Yugi blinked and looked surprised. "You mean if it wasn't for that, you'd be able to find out who was doing this?"

Bakura nodded. "I could track the souls. It's not easy to do, but I can do it if I have to."

"How?" Yami's voice was very soft.

"Remember I said there were four parts to a soul? Well, the fourth part is a link between a soul and its soulroom. Like a thin thread that connects the two. It's there so a soul can always find its way back to where it belongs. When Pegasus or I seal a soul, the thread stretches from the soulroom to whatever the soul's been sealed in. When the soul's released, it's that thread that guides the soul back to its body. But because the whole room's been taken" He sighed again and scowled.

"I see. So by doing this, the culprit has effectively covered his tracks. Is that what you are saying?"

Bakura nodded. "Pretty much."

Yugi looked more than a little dazed and bewildered. "But Bakura if it isn't possible for you to steal a whole soulroom then who could do it? I mean" He coloured as he glanced at his darker half. "I'm sorry, Yami, but I'm right, aren't I? The Ring is stronger at soul stealing than the Puzzle?"

Yami smiled a little to reassure his Light as he nodded. "Yes. The Puzzle is stronger in general, however Bakura's extensive use of the Ring has made him more adept in this particular area." He paused to reconsider his words. "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Puzzle's particular strengths lie in other areas while this is the Ring's speciality?" He glanced at Bakura for confirmation, receiving it in the form of a silent nod, his smile fading as he considered the implications of that. "Which means that my Light"

"Is absolutely right. Yeah. If I can't do it with the Ring, then none of us with Millennium Items could do it." Bakura scowled even more heavily. "Which brings us back to what we were saying before. If this couldn't have been done by any of us, that only leaves one of the Shadow Monsters."

Bakura gulped down the last of his glass of water before adding very quietly, "But working out which one it is and who they're working with, if that's what's going on here, won't be easy."

Even as Yami and Yugi nodded in agreement, Bakura began to get to his feet. Yami arched an eyebrow at him. "You are going? That was all you learned?"

"Ryou will be wondering where I am." Bakura managed a wry smile for Yugi's benefit as he handed the smaller boy his glass. "Thanks for the water."

Yugi smiled back and took the glass. "You're welcome, Bakura. See you tomorrow." He headed out of the room.

Yami fixed Bakura with his usual steady gaze. "It did not escape me that you did not answer my second question. Nor that you managed to get Yugi to leave the room before he realised the same."

Bakura wasn't smiling anymore as he looked at the other dark spirit. "If those four children don't get their soulrooms back soon they'll die."

Yami closed his eyes briefly, clearly struggling to maintain his composure. When he opened his eyes again, they were flickering red in their depths. He was furious, but remained outwardly calm as he softly spoke. "How long?"

"A few days at most. The sooner we get them back, the better."

"'We'? You said they could not be tracked. Do you have another plan?"

Bakura arched an eyebrow at Yami, his lip curling up into a slight smirk. "I don't plan. I scheme."

* * *

On the other side of the city, a door slid open. The one who had opened it paused, listening. The water was still running in the next room. Good. There'd be enough time. The figure slipped through the door, onto the small balcony beyond.

A shadow stirred at the end of the balcony and a soft voice came out of the darkness there. "Is it safe?"

"She's in the shower and always takes a while. There's time. How about you?"

"He's asleep. Worn out from his rampage." There was a hint of amusement in the tone.

"Ah. He saw the recap show." Satisfaction filled the second speaker's voice.

"Yes. He's not at all happy. But are you sure that's a good thing?" The voice sounded worried. Or perhaps a little afraid.

"In this case, yes. Nothing more will happen. Well nothing like today, at least. Esper will withdraw from the contest tomorrow. Leaving the way clear." A soft sight. "It's a pity. He's a good duelist. I would have liked to duel him in the final stage. But it's better this way."

"I suppose so." The first voice didn't sound at all sure of that. "I hope it all goes according to plan."

"Don't worry. It will. I've made sure of it." The second voice was as reassuring as possible. "Now we don't have much time. Do you have them?"

"Yes." A small, pale hand, attached to a wrist so slender that it looked as if a gust of strong wind could break it, reached out of the shadows.

The other accepted what the shadowy figure handed over and studied the items for a moment before nodding. "Good work. Are you sure it won't be a problem?"

"I've replaced them. The spell will last a couple of days. That should be enough time."

Another nod. "Yes. It's almost over, now."

"Yes. Ah the water has stopped." The shadowy figure sounded a little sad.

"I'd better go back in. Don't worry. Everything will work out. And when this is all over" There was a hint of shyness in the voice. A hint of promise.

"Then we'll be together." No mere hint, it was a firm promise. A vow. An oath. A pledge.

"Yes. Goodnight." The other turned and headed back inside.

"Goodnight." For a few moments more the shadows at the end of the balcony seemed to be deeper than usual, but then with a soft sigh like a gentle breeze, they returned to normal.

* * *

Mai came into the bedroom, towelling her hair dry. "Bathroom's free, Hun. Brrr it's cold in here. Is a window open?" She looked around.

Nyc shook her head. "Sorry. I stepped out on the balcony for some fresh air. It was a little fresher than I thought it would be." She smiled as Mai laughed. "When I come out, want to play cards? Not duel, just cards." She grinned at the pout Mai sent her way at the clarification.

"Fine. But if we play poker again, this time we're playing for something other than potato chips. You lost so much last night, I'm sure I gained five pounds."

Nyc shook her head as she gathered up her things and headed for the bathroom. "You didn't have to eat your winnings, you know."

"Well what's the point in winning if you don't make use of what you win?" Mai smirked and sat down on the bed to finish drying her hair.

Nyc's laughter trailed off as soon as she was alone in the bathroom. She opened her toiletries case and took out a small velvet pouch, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her treasures. She smiled slightly as she looked at the four small orbs, all softly gleaming with an inner radiance. "Not bad at all for a day's work." As she softly spoke, she slipped the four orbs into the velvet pouch and tucked it away inside the larger case again.

* * *

In another part of the city, another balcony door slid silently open and another figure stole into the room beyond it. A quick check of the bed caused the figure to go still.

It was empty.

"About time you got back." The voice that came out of the darkness on the far side of the room was as far from warm and welcoming as it was possible to get. "Where were you?"

"I I just went out to get some air."

"Why don't I believe you? Where were you? The truth, this time." It was part snarl and part command.

The recipient of the order trembled slightly. "It is the truth. I went to the park. Sat on a swing. I have not done that for so long"

The harsh voice cut him off. "Were you seen?"

"I"

Movement in the darkness. Evien emerged from the shadows, his eyes narrowed in a fierce glare as he grabbed the slender shoulders of the other and shook them hard. "I said, were you seen?"

"Ow. There was no one at the park. It was empty." There was a sob of pain in the voice.

Evien smirked as he released his grasp with a small shove that sent the other stumbling back a few steps. "Good. Keep it that way. I don't want anyone else to know about you. You're my secret weapon. My servant and my slave. Never forget that." He turned and strode off to the bathroom.

The other, trembling, slumped down onto the floor. "For now. Only for now." The words were spoken on a mere whisper of breath, too soft for any human ear to hear.

To be continued


	10. Chapter 9: All Down to Luck

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My humblest apologies for not updating this story in so long. Real life went crazy on both myself and my beta reader. To make up for it, here's a little status update on the progress of this story: This update contains chapters 9-10 and I've already started work on chapter 11. I also have the remainder of this whole story roughly planned out. So it's getting there, I just need time to work on it. For those who are still reading after all this time, I thank you for your patience and hope you continue to enjoy it.

**Tournament of Shadows  
Chapter 9: All Down to Luck**  
By Shadow's Mirror

The dark clouds that had hung over the city of Domino the previous day had grown heavier through the night. As they threatened to rain on the fourth day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament, breakfast at the Kaiba mansion was interrupted by a phone call.

Joey and Mokuba continued eating while Seto answered it. They were almost finished by the time he returned to the table. One look at the dark scowl creasing the young CEO's forehead and, for the first time in living memory, Joey hesitated in the middle of raising his fork to his mouth. "What's up, Kaiba?"

Seto sat down again, his scowl deepening at the question. "That was the head of my security division. Kaiba Corp. is providing additional security for the tournament today, because of the attacks yesterday. The tournament organisers have just advised that they won't need quite so many guards as there is now one less participant." He shook his head at the sharp look Joey sent him. "No, not another attack. Esper Roba has pulled out."

Joey's fork clattered onto his plate. He stared at the other teenager in shock. "What? Why?"

"Fear. Not for himself. For his brothers. Apparently the attacks on the three girls yesterday, combined with the attacks on the children throughout the city, has made him fear for their safety. They are alone for the entire day, as long as he remains in the competition." Seto and Joey traded glances. Fear for a sibling was something they both understood.

"It's a pity. He's a good duelist. I was looking forward to dueling him again, too. But yeah, I can see his point. If my sister was in the city, I'd be worried about her too." He glanced at Mokuba, then arched an eyebrow at Kaiba.

Seto nodded once. "I agree. In his case, this is the wisest course of action to ensure his siblings' safety. For me, I have already issued instructions that Mokuba is to be closely guarded at all times if he steps foot off this estate." He looked at his pouting younger brother. "I mean it, Mokuba. You are not to lose the guards."

"I know, big brother." Mokuba sighed and pouted some more. "But I really hope that whoever's behind the attacks is caught soon. I don't want to be guarded for any longer than I have to be!" He paused to have another bite of breakfast, then added casually, "The bodyguards really cramp my style with the ladies."

As Joey snickered, Seto stared in shock at his younger brother. "Mokuba! Have you been listening to Wheeler again?"

"Hey!" Joey glared at Kaiba but Mokuba just grinned and shook his head.

"No. It was one of the bodyguards. Before you ask, no, I'm not saying which one. He's one of the few I actually like, so I don't want to get him into trouble." As his older brother glowered at him, the boy continued eating.

Seto sighed and reluctantly gave up the idea of getting the man's identity out of his brother. He had more important things to focus on than working out who was behind Mokuba's use of inappropriate-for-a-Kaiba terminology.

Turning to Wheeler, Seto spoke quietly. "I called Yugi and informed him, also. He had some news in return. They suspect the one behind the attacks to be a" He sighed heavily and clearly didn't want to say what he was about to say. "A Shadow Monster." He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the ridiculous notion. "Working with someone else." That seemed to make it a little more palatable for him as his nose stopped wrinkling.

Joey nodded. "That fits. No one person could have taken out all three of the girls at once. I thought that when I saw them." He winced at the memory.

Seto started to nod, but then stopped, frowning. "Wait. You saw them? When?"

"Huh? I didn't tell you? Oh, sorry." Joey winced. "I was the one who found them in the alley."

"What? Why didn't you say anything?" Seto glared at Wheeler, but the blonde boy just shrugged.

"Didn't seem important. It's not like I saw the attack on them or anything. They'd been there for a while. Besides, I say I found them, but really I was just the one who called for help for them. The one who found them was that kid."

Seto frowned. "A child? What do you mean? Start from the beginning, Wheeler. What happened?"

"Okay." Joey sipped his orange juice as he got his thoughts in order. "I was on my way to my next duel when I spotted that little girl on the side of the road, near the mouth of an alley. You know, the kid we were talking about the other day. The one I'd seen with Callie. She was crying and looked so scared, I knew something was wrong. So I asked the driver to pull over and asked her what the problem was. She said Callie and the other girls were in the alley and they were really hurt and she didn't know what to do. I said I'd help and went to take a look. They were lying against the wall, out cold but breathing. I called for an ambulance and stayed with them until it came."

Seto's frown had deepened while he listened. "What happened to the child?"

It was Joey's turn to frown. "That's just it. I don't know. After I called for help, I went to tell her the ambulance was on it's way, but she was already gone."

The silence stretched uncomfortably as Seto just stared at Joey for several moments. Then he put his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he had a headache. "Wheeler A strange child informs you that someone is hurt and then vanishes and you do not consider that to be important?" He was clearly trying not to lose his temper.

"She didn't do it, Kaiba." It was a quiet statement with the blonde teen's complete conviction in every word of it.

"You may be naïvely trusting, Wheeler, however I am not." Seto scowled at the other boy, but Joey just shook his head.

"You didn't see her. She wasn't just scared. She was terrified."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Seto was now glaring at him, but Joey only shook his head again.

"I don't know, all right! I just don't think she did it! I saw how scared she was and I can't believe that she had anything to do with the attack on the girls. She was scared for them. I don't know why she ran. Maybe once she knew they were being helped, her fear for them became fear for herself, or something." Joey glared back at Kaiba.

Seto was about to reply when the last thing Wheeler had said struck him as actually being probable. He paused to consider it and finally, reluctantly, nodded. "I suppose that is a possibility. Especially if she is as young as she looks. I will have the security division keep watch for her. I have a man stationed at the hospital, also. Perhaps, if she is indeed friendly with Callie, she will visit her there."

Joey relaxed again and nodded. "Sounds good." He picked up his fork again and resumed eating, clearly relieved that was settled. "We should get moving. It's nearly time to go. You're going to the office this morning, right?"

Seto watched his temporary house guest for a moment, the look of surprise on his face shifting to something that might possibly have been almost amusement before he, too, resumed his interrupted breakfast. "Indeed."

* * *

When the participants gathered at the park for the opening of the tournament, as they were required to do by the rules, it was a much smaller group than on the previous days. It was also a very serious and sombre group. Even Marik seemed subdued and hovered close behind the Light, like the Shadow he was.

Rex looked around at the seven duellists there and frowned in confusion. "Uh where is everyone? All running late or something? I mean, I know about Avril, Rina and Callie" His eyes widened in alarm. "Don't tell me the others?"

"Relax, Rex." Joey waved a hand before the other boy could start panicking. "It says in the rules we only have to come here each morning if we're still active in the first round of the tournament. Yug, Kaiba, Bakura and Nyc already made it through to round two and Esper pulled out this morning." He said it softly, still shocked and sad over the decision.

"Huh? What? Why would he do a fool thing like" Rex trailed off and looked thoughtful, for once. "Wait. He's got a whole heap of little brothers or something, hasn't he?"

Joey nodded. "Yeah. The city's not safe for kids right now and he was worried about them. He's taken them home."

A soft sound behind Joey and a slight frown on Malik's face were the only warnings Joey had that the last of the duelists had arrived, before he spoke. "Such a shame." Evien's smooth voice held just a trace too much sympathy for it to be honestly felt. "Still, it means there's more hope for the rest of us to get into the finals." He moved to stand beside Joey and smiled his 'oh you poor thing' smile at the blonde teen. "Most of us, anyway."

Joey shrugged. "Like I said before, not all of us care about that. I'm just here 'cause I love to duel."

Evien smiled and nodded. "If you say so." He sauntered off towards the officials.

Malik waited until he was gone before removing his hand from over Marik's mouth. His 'brother' immediately pouted at him. "Malik! I wanted to tell him off. You know Joey will end up in the finals."

The smaller boy nodded and smiled consolingly at his darker half. "Of course he will. But remember what Isis said to us this morning?"

Marik thought for a moment, then beamed happily. "That we weren't to run in the house while eating pancakes as it made Odion pout and treat himself to bunny magazines as a reward for having to clean the syrup off the walls."

Malik shook his head. "No, not that. Although it's good that you remembered because I'd forgotten. I meant what she said about Joey's dueling ability. Remember that?"

"Oh!" Marik nodded happily, but then his smile was suddenly gone and he was more serious than he'd been in the rest of the contest. "We're not to let on to Evien that Joey is a really good duelist."

Joey blinked. "Huh? How come?" He looked confused.

Malik shrugged and looked at his sister, who was watching and listening with her usual complete calmness. "Isis?"

Isis looked at Joey, her eyes warmer than usual and quite gentle. "Watching Evien Sanders duel has made me suspect that he could be a dangerous enemy. He clearly wishes to win this contest and I do not believe he would allow anything, or anyone, to get in the way of that goal. At the moment, he does not see you as a threat. I feel that it would be best if it stayed that way. If he knew the truth That you are coming last only because you fell behind on the first two days due to a lack of transport, which has since been remedied It might not be safe for you."

Rex and Weevil frowned and looked uneasy. "You think he's the one behind the attacks?" Rex spoke for both of them.

"I have no proof, only suspicions based almost solely on his duels. You have seen them, have you not?" Isis spoke very quietly, but her words made both boys frown deeply.

"Yeah. We've seen them." Weevil didn't look happy.

"His duels are full-on." Rex looked even less happy.

"If you could even call them duels. They looked more like torture sessions to me." Joey scowled.

Mai nodded. "For both his opponent and his monsters. That guy has a real cruel streak. He really enjoys handing out punishment."

Rex looked at Mai as if struck by what she'd said. "Huh I wonder if that's what Rina meant." At the others' curious looks, he shrugged slightly. "The first day of the contest, Rina and I shared a cab when we went off to look for our duels, since we were heading the same way. I asked her how come she and the other girls had been so hard with Evien and if they knew him. Figured it couldn't hurt to find out a bit more about one of my opponents, you know." He frowned. "Rina said she, Callie and Avril got on his bad side a few months back, and he'd made sure that they all suffered for it. No details, but I got the feeling she wasn't just talking about dueling there."

Weevil frowned. "A few months ago? Wasn't that about the same time they pulled out of the Tokyo contest? You know, the one we were in, too."

Rex nodded. "Yeah. I heard a rumour that Callie twisted her ankle or something. They've always been close, so it wasn't surprising that Rina and Avril pulled out too." He frowned. "But looking back on it now after all this I'm starting to wonder if that's really what happened." He looked uneasy and so did Weevil.

Mai was frowning now. "First night of the tournament, Nyc told me Evien tried to make Avril go out with him not long ago, and 'it went badly'. That's how Nyc put it. I know whatever he did, it royally ticked off those three girls. You know what? I haven't liked him from the start, but the more I hear about him, the less I like him."

Isis nodded. "I would advise all of you to exercise great caution today." She looked at Rex, Weevil and her brothers.

As the four of them nodded, Joey pouted. "So you don't think I'm in the running either? Ouch. That hurts."

Isis smiled a little and shook her head very slightly. "I believe he believes that you are no threat to him. That is not the same thing at all, Joey."

Reassured, Joey nodded. He looked around the group and grinned with his usual cheerful attitude. "Well, it's all down to luck now. Four more spots in the finals and eight duelists after them. Enjoy your duels!"

The others replied in kind and when the officials called for the duelists to assemble, they all headed over together to listen to the same talk on the tournament and its rules that they'd been made to listen to every day for the previous three days. Only Rex and Weevil hung back a little from the others, talking quietly for a moment.

"Think we have a chance?" Weevil frowned. "Because I'm not sure I do."

Rex nodded slightly. "Isis just needs to go to the last location and Mai's up to her last match. They're in for sure. That leaves two places. For the two of us maybe." He looked worried.

Weevil sighed. "I'm not sure I want to get in, if it means going up against that Evien guy. You've seen him duel. You think you can beat him?"

"I have no clue." Rex didn't look happy to admit it. "You?"

"If I can get my main card on the field, maybe. But I don't like my chances. My deck's not good against his, from what I've seen of it." Weevil glanced at Rex. "So what are we going to do?"

Rex shrugged slightly. "What we can. Wheeler's right. It's all down to luck now. If any of us get stuck on where our last duels are we're out. Let's just keep going to the end and see what happens."

Weevil nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

The two hurried to join the others as the fourth day of the tournament officially began.

To be continued


End file.
